One Week
by GatorSam
Summary: Ever wonder what would happen if there were no digimon or Digital World at all? Would the "digi-destineds" still be friends, would they be enemies, or would they even have met at all? Find out how this strange group of kids deal with their lives without the Digital World.
1. Chapter 1

Hey everybody!

I'm really glad to be writing again. This particular story is the first part of a potential series I'm calling the "Non-digi destineds" series. There are no digimon or Digital World in this story at all. It basically is my take on what would happen if the kids never went to the Digital World. This story is called One Week. It's gonna be thirteen chapters ( if I stay to what I have planned out), and as of now there are no couplings because the kids are too young- in my eyes at least- for romance or love. This chapter has every one of the digidestineds in it and nothing really happens. The first couple of chapters are going to basically set this story up; kinda let you all know how I'm going to write each character, what they are like, etc. There may be a bit of OOC'ness, but I'm going to try to keep the digidestineds with the same personality they have in the series. Also, I'm going to try to write using their real names, not the nicknames, for those to which it applies. I think it's only Taichi, Hikari, Takeru, Yamato, and Koushiro. If I mess up and switch the names up please forgive me, but I like these names better so I'm going to try them. Anyways, I urge you all to leave a review (even a one word review is very much appreciated!) and I really hope you enjoy this chapter and this story.

* * *

One Week:

Chapter 1:

The first thing he thought when he woke up was, 'Why am I here.' It was as he rubbed his eyes and his mind started to wake up that he remembered his name was Taichi Kamiya. He was twelve years old and in the fifth grade, but he didn't have to worry about school right now. It was the summer right now, and for this particular week he was going to summer camp.

As he reminded himself of that little fact, he immediately felt a dread build up inside him. He was not looking forward to this week at all. The main reason behind this was because he was going to have to leave his little sister home alone- well, with their parents of course- for the entire week.

He couldn't remember any time in his life where he had been away from Hikari for that long, especially since she had become sick. His little sister was everything to him. They had been close ever since they were young- actually 'younger' since most people still considered them both to be young though he did not see it that way. They had grown very close and had become each other's 'friend.' As a matter of fact, they were each other's only friend.

Which is why he was not looking forward to leaving this morning; he had no other friends. He supposed he could have friends, but he would have to spend more time away from Hikari. He talked to other kids and would play in the park with them, but Hikari was always there and the other kids always saw her as a 'drag' or 'let-down.' They never wanted to hang around him very long because he had the weird sister that followed him everywhere. There was even one time where someone had made fun of him because of Kari. That was a bad time, though, and he didn't want to think too long about it.

This was not what worried him the most, though. No, he was afraid of what would happen to his sister while he was gone. For about a couple of weeks, Hikari had been sick with the flu. But it wasn't just the average flu that he caught every once in a while. This flu was really, really bad, and it even had a special name, pneumonia. He still liked to call it the flu, though, because it was easier to say. During this time his parents had become very worried and he often caught them crying asking each other "What is she dies?" It was times like these where he would do his best to comfort Hikari and help her not become too worried. She also had this annoying habit of blaming herself for making their parents cry, so it became his responsibility to help his little sister feel better. Now he was not going to be around for an entire week. What would happen if his sister spotted her parents crying and he wasn't around to make her feel better?

No, he did not dread this week of camp because he didn't have other friends, though it did play a part in it; it was because his sick sister was going to have to be alone for the entire week without him to help her.

He sighed as he threw his blankets off of him and hopped out of bed. He noticed something as soon as he got up, though. He sniffed the air and rolled his eyes when he smelled some sort of food his mother was attempting to cook. In his house, it was not any mystery that his mother was not a good chef. She liked to think she was with all of her various and strange concoctions she liked to cook up, but he- along with his father and sister- had yet to find one they truly enjoyed. At best, his mother's cooking was bearable, and at other times it was simply disgusting. He shivered at the remembrance of some of the things his mother had made for the family. Like that one time she made "Scrambled Brains." He started to vomit at the thought of it.

Nevertheless, he changed out of his pajamas and carried his already packed duffle bag out into the kitchen where his mother was standing by the stove, his father was sitting down reading the newspaper- ignoring the plate of, whatever it was, sitting right in front of him- and his sister was watching him intently- also not having touched the food his mother had prepared.

"Good morning Taichi!" his mother said cheerfully as she turned around holding a pan and scooped what looked like burnt pancakes onto an empty plate.

"Uh, mom, what are those exactly?" he asked, setting down his bag and pulling out a chair at the kitchen table for him to sit at.

As she turned around to set the pan down and turn the stove off she replied, "They're organic pancakes, and they are delicious. Right, dear?"

"What?" his father asked, shaking his head, "Oh, yes, of course."

He sighed as he sat down and stared at the blackened lumps that were meant to be his breakfast.

"Morning… Taichi," he heard his sister say in-between coughs.

He turned and gave her a big smile replying, "Good morning Hikari! Are you any better today?"

"No," she said, coughing again as she said the word.

"It's ok. You'll get better soon, I know it," he said with as much hope as he could, but even he didn't believe himself. He hated to admit it- and he never would tell Kari this- but even he was afraid sometimes for his sister's life.

Despite his unconvincing tone, she smiled at him and said, "Thanks Taichi!" After a couple moments of silence as his mother cleaned up and the rest of the family did everything except eat the food sitting in front of them, Hikari asked him, "Are you excited for camp?"

He rolled his eyes at this. "Yeah," he answered, "Something like that."

"I wish I could go with you," Hikari said quietly. He could hear the sadness in her voice, so he put his arm on his sister's shoulder and gave her a smile.

He replied, "I know you do, Hikari, but you have to get better first."

"Tai's right," their mother said as she cleaned the pans she had used to make the monstrosities that were their breakfast. 'Organic pancakes,' she had called them; he shivered as he thought about what the- he wasn't sure if he could disgrace the name by calling these it- pancakes in front of him would taste like.

"But I really want to go!" Hikari added weakly, not backing down.

His mother shook her head no. "Not while you're feeling sick."

His sister sighed in between coughs, only making himself feel worse about leaving. It was only the beginning of the week and it was summer time, but he was already looking forward for all of it to be over.

* * *

She wasn't ever going to leave her room, ever!

That's what she thought at least as she lay on her bed looking up at the ceiling tossing a soccer ball up in the air and catching it on its way down. She just was so mad, and all of her anger was directed towards one person and one person only: her mother.

Sora couldn't understand why her mother was so… everything. Her mother: was overprotective, was selfish, was only worried about herself, was mean, and did not care or love her at all. She had been able to handle her mother most of the time, but this was the final straw. The fight that had occurred the previous night had pushed her over the edge.

_She was tired as she walked home from the school. She had just finished a soccer game and was in high spirits- due to her team's victory and her game-winning goal with seconds left on the clock- as she walked home. She was sad that neither of her parent's had shown up to watch her play, but she was used to it by now._

_The sun was setting along the horizon as she opened the front door to her house, which was next to her mother's flower shop, and called out, "Mom, I'm home!"_

_Her mother appeared around the corner looking flustered and frustrated. _

_"Sora! Where have you been!" her mother demanded._

_She hesitated, "I was at my soccer game. You know, the one I asked you and dad to go to?" Her good mood was already starting to fade away, and the look on her mother's face told her she wasn't going to get it back._

_"I was working in the flower shop, making a real living for us! Your father is working as well, doing something that makes money! You, on the other hand, insist on playing that dumb sport, which does nothing for this family! In fact, I think it would just be best if you started helping me out in the flower shop and quit that 'game' of yours altogether. Yes, that sounds like a great plan."_

_"But mom," she blurted out, anger growing up inside her. Soccer meant everything to her and she was not about to stop playing just to stand around smelling plants all day. "I enjoy soccer! All of my friends play as well! I can't just…"_

_"Sora, you are going to stop playing soccer. My word is final," her mother said with finality._

_"But…" she tried._

_"No buts!" her mother said, cutting her off._

_She could tell by the look on her mother's face that there was no way she was going to change her mother's mind._

_Anger boiling up to the brim, she screamed out, "I hate you!" _

_She ran for her room, entered, and slammed the door shut behind her. Jumping onto her bed, she stuffed her face in her pillow, tears falling uncontrollably from her face._

Why couldn't her mother just accept her for who she was? She wasn't like the other girls in her class. She didn't want to wear dresses every day and play dolls and all that. She liked playing sports, and she loved soccer and spending time with her friends. Those were the things she enjoyed. Why couldn't her mother be ok with it?

She heard a knock on her door, but she ignored it. When she didn't get up to let Sora in, a voice spoke from outside the door.

"Sora, you're going to be late for camp," a man's voice said quietly, yet loud enough for her to hear.

She was surprised at first to hear her dad; he never came home. But then what his father had said clicked in her mind. Camp? She had almost forgotten about that. Her bags were already packed- they had been packed four days ago, that's how excited she was- and waiting for her. She was not as excited about going anymore, thanks to her mother, but she wasn't about to let a chance to get out of the house and escape for an entire week without having to deal with the complications of parents go by.

So she quickly set down the soccer ball, grabbed her bags, and opened the door. Her father was standing right outside looking at her with a sad look in his eyes. She ignored him though. Even though he wasn't there or was the cause of the fight, she was still mad at him. Actually, it was the fact that he wasn't there that made her upset at him. Her father was never around! He was always working, working, or- you guessed it- working. He rarely came home, and because of that she had to face her mother alone. She was sure that her mother's frustration with him not being around had contributed to her disturbing behavior the previous night. She wasn't about to forgive him any time soon.

She pushed past him as she walked quickly for the door. She walked out of her house and entered her father's mini-van, setting down her bags in the back seat. She buckled her seat belt and stared at Odaiba through her passenger-side window. She was so happy she was leaving.

* * *

"Good morning Koushiro!"

He walked into the kitchen, carrying his laptop of course- he never went anywhere without it- and sat down on the stool. He set the computer off to his side as his "mother" set down a plate of eggs and bacon in front of him.

"Good morning mo…" he started, but he cut himself off. She looked at him with a worried expression, but then shook her head and went back to working in the kitchen.

He picked at his food for a little while as he thought. He had been doing a lot of that recently. Actually, he thought a lot. He enjoyed researching different topics and filling his mind with all sorts of knowledge, so he was used to thinking. It was just he usually thought only about various algorithms and other scientific studies. He did not spend a lot of time thinking about people.

And he had devoted most of his time in the past couple of nights to thinking about people. He never usually found people to be that intriguing, but when he had eavesdropped on his parents and heard them say he was adopted, all of that changed.

He didn't know what to think when he had first found out the news. At first he was completely shocked and felt, as the people of today might call it, heartbroken. His entire life seemed like it had been a lie. The people he had grown accustomed to believing were his parents ended up not being his true parents. They were only figureheads, or replacements of his real parents, whom he never even knew existed until only a couple of nights ago. He had grown up loving his "parents" and he had thought they loved them too, but now he was not sure.

He thought he would be able to make sense of all of it as he usually was able to when something perplexing came across him, but this seemed like one calculation to which there was no logical solution. The man and woman sitting in front of him at this very moment loved him, didn't they? They sure seemed like they did, but if they truly loved him, wouldn't they have told him this truth sooner? And he loved the couple in front of him, didn't he? They had taken care of him and raised him into the person he was today for as long as he could remember, yet he couldn't help but feel angry and upset with the husband and wife. Why didn't they ever tell him? Did they worry how he would react and maybe see them differently like he did at the current time?

He shook his head. It had been three days now and he still wasn't able to make any sense of the situation. All he had succeeded in doing was making his head throb. He blinked and saw his mother- he supposed he would call her his mother for now for simplicity's sake, at least until he cleared up this mess inside his head- look at him with concern etched across her face.

"Koushiro? Are you ok, dear?" she asked.

"What? I'm fine," he said rubbing his eyes.

His father laughed and added, "It looks like you're still sleeping son." He winced as he heard his father call him his son. How could his father say that even though it was not truly accurate? He ignored it, though, because if he didn't he would have to tell them he had overheard their conversation and knew he was adopted.

"Maybe you're right," he said with a small laugh. He sighed inwardly as his mother's face flushed out the concern and was replaced with happiness.

She smiled and asked, "Are you excited about camp?"

"Indeed," he said, perking up a little as he was reminded of what was going to happen this next week. He was going to go to a computer camp for the week and get to spend time quality time with what he loved the most in his life, his laptop computer.

"Well, that's good," his father said, "because it's actually time to go."

"That's right," his mother added. He stood up, stuffing one last bite of his breakfast into his mouth, before picking up his computer and walking for the door. He slid on his shoes and grabbed his other bag that was packed and clothes and whatnot that he would need for the upcoming week. Honestly, he didn't even know why he needed some of the stuff- such as hiking boots and other random outdoors items. He never went outside very much, and he didn't plan on spending much time outside while he was at _computer _camp, but he had simply gone along with it.

"I'm going to miss you, Koushiro," her mother said sadly as his father finished his goodbye kiss and was walking out the front door of their apartment.

He hesitated, but finally replied, "I'll miss you too," while stepping towards her and opening up his arms. She did so as well and they embraced. He pulled away quickly and turned to head out the door, sadness starting to fill him up.

"I love you Koushiro," she said as he closed the door behind him.

* * *

He always was told that being a kid was easy. Growing up, you were supposed to have fun, play with friends, and not worry about "grown-up" things. Apparently his father never received that memo.

His father was very demanding- to say the least- of him. The Kido family tradition was for every Kido to become a doctor someday. His two brothers, both older than him, were following those footsteps- forced to follow was more like it. And now it was his turn.

He spent most of his time either at school, sleeping, or studying various medical books his father told him to study. There were many times where he would look outside and see other kids his age outside playing, having a good old time, and he yearned to be one of those kids. But then he remembered all of his allergies he had and that it wasn't worth it to go outside just to get all sick.

He was told that he was allergic to just about anything and everything. His father would tell him all the time that he was allergic to different things whenever he inquired of them. He remembered one time a long time ago he had asked his father if he could go outside and play soccer with the other kids in the park. His father simply shook his head and said, "Joe, you're allergic to the outside."

Now that he was old enough to understand there was no way someone could be allergic to the outside, he realized that some of the things his father had told him he was allergic to were not necessarily true. But because of the way he had been brought up, he hadn't become an outside, sport-loving kid. He was, as some of the people in his class liked to call him, a nerd. He had learned to accept this, but he still wished he could be _normal. _

At least he had his mother and his two brothers to help him through it all. Trying to learn all of this medical terminology and such as a seventh grader was not easy and it was very stressful on him at times. It was at times like these where his mother and brothers would help him calm down. Sometimes his mother would even take him to his favorite ice cream shop and let him get whatever it was that he wanted. They were always looking out for him and trying to help him out whenever they could.

This was the reason he was sitting on the bus. He was heading to a summer camp for the entire week because his mother and brothers had thought it would be good for him. It took quite some convincing, but his father finally allowed for him to go to the camp. There he would be "doctor-free" for an entire week. It sounded like heaven, except for one little thing; he hated being outside. He never went outside very much, and because of that he had become a bit clumsy when it came to doing outdoorsy things. And he was going to be with a bunch of kids in his class. That wasn't going to be fun; he wasn't the most popular of kids and he didn't have any friends.

So as he sat on the shaking bus staring outside through the window, he had mixed feelings for this upcoming week. He knew, however, that he was glad to not have to worry about his father for the entirety of the week.

There she was. She had a beautiful pink dress on along with a pair of brown boots. Her brown hair hung down a little below her shoulders and she was wearing her favorite pink cowboy hat. She looked fabulous!

She had to make a good impression after all. Her parents had been nagging on her to go to this week-long summer camp and she had agreed once she realized there was no stopping her parents pleads for her to go.

Even though it wasn't her favorite thing to do- camping was not on her list of most favorite ways to spend a summer, go figure- she was glad she was going. She wished she could spend the summer hanging out on the beach or going shopping, but at least this way she would be able to meet some of the people she would be going to school with this upcoming year.

She was new here, having just moved to Odaiba a few weeks ago, and did not have any friends. Her old friends had not moved with her and, although she missed them dearly every day, she knew there was no changing the fact that she had moved.

It was now time to restart. It was as if she was starting a new life almost. All the people she used to know from her hometown were no longer a part of her life. She now was going to meet new people, make new friends, and have more experiences.

She could not be more excited as she rode in the car with her parents. 'Look out Odaiba,' she thought to herself, 'Mimi Tachikawa has arrived!'

* * *

He rode in the car in silence as his father drove to his mother's house. He was used to silent car rides like these when his father would take him back and forth every couple of weeks to stay with his mother. He had grown accustomed to it, but that didn't mean he enjoyed it one tiny bit.

His parents had divorced a couple of years ago leaving him to stay with his father and his little brother, Takeru, to stay with their mother. The arrangement sucked, for lack of a better word. It was not that he hated his father, but he missed his mother and his little brother so badly. Getting to see them a couple of times a month was not enough.

This had caused him to hold a grudge against his parents. Why did they have to be so selfish? They didn't have to have a divorce. Things could have worked out and they could still be one happy family, but instead they had split up leaving him feel very lonely, confused, and sad.

He often wondered why his parents divorced. Was it because of him, or even because of Takeru? Or was there something more behind it? He had no idea, and sometimes his mind would wander off to very negative thoughts. Some of them he knew weren't true, but the possibility that they could be even a little bit possible had made them stick in his mind.

However, this was not a normal visit. No, they were going to his mother's only to pick up Takeru. Then, their father was taking them to summer camp for the week. He felt a little excited about this. He would finally be able to spend time with his little brother and get to see how he was doing.

He often worried over his little brother. Takeru was young when the divorce happened so he never seemed quite as affected by it as he had, but that still didn't mean that Takeru was ok. Maybe his little brother, like he often did, blamed himself for the divorce. He had to make sure Takeru was doing fine, and what better way than at a summer camp where they'd have fun, right?

"Yamato, we're here son," he heard his father say.

At that time he noticed his father was right. The car was off and they were sitting at his mother's apartment building. He shook his head to stop his thoughts as he opened the door and stepped outside.

They entered the building and took a quick ride up the elevator, and before he knew it they were standing right outside the apartment. His father knocked loudly and in a matter of seconds the door flew open revealing a tiny, blonde-headed boy smiling a wide smile up at them.

"Yamato! Dad!" the little boy shouted happily. Without any notice, the little boy, Takeru, charged at him giving him a hug. He returned the embrace quickly. When Takeru ran off to give his father a hug, he noticed his mother standing by the doorway.

"Hello Yamato," she said with a smile.

He gave a quick smile back saying, "Hi mom."

"Hello… Hiroaki," his mother said, the smile wiped off of her face.

His father replied with the same unenthusiastic tone, "Natsuki."

He wondered how long it had been since he had seen the two together, but he discarded the thought. It didn't matter because his parents weren't ever going to get back together. He looked at his little brother and saw the exact opposite, however.

Takeru had on a huge smile as he saw their parents shake hands. He knew how much Takeru wanted the two to get back together, but he knew that was never going to happen. He never had the heart to crush his little brother's hopes, though, because, although he hated to admit it, his little brother's hopeful smiles seemed to fill him up with the hope his parents would get back together.

"Here's your bag Takeru," their mother said handing Takeru a duffle bag similar to the one he had packed. Takeru took it with a smile before saying, "Thanks mom! I'm so excited to go!"

His mother frowned a bit at this, but she shook her head and smiled back at her youngest son.

"Have a fun time at camp Takeru, and you too Yamato. I'll miss you both." She hesitated before adding, "Bye Hiroaki."

Takeru waved as their mother shut the door. Next thing he knew, his little brother was running off towards the elevator at full speed having forgotten his bag. He sighed as he picked up the bag and followed after Takeru.

He looked back, feeling like he was leaving something, and saw his father still standing outside the apartment looking at the door.

"Dad are you coming?" he asked his father.

"Wha…" his father said as he blinked his eyes a couple of times as if he was waking up from some sort of trance. Then his father looked at him and gave him a smile.

"Sorry about that. Yes, I'm coming."

Matt turned back to continue following his brother thinking that there was something going on between his father and mother, but he shook his head. There was no way that _that _was going on. Besides, he wasn't going to spend this week worrying about his parents or the divorce. This week was one-hundred percent focused on spending quality time with Takeru and maybe even having some fun for a change.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer (sorry for leaving one out for the previous chapter): I do NOT own digimon or its characters!

Well this story's going pretty well so far. I got a review (Thanks "The Keeper of Worlds" and I'm so happy you're back and still reviewing!) . Also got a few favorites and follows and thanks to all of you who had done so! It means a lot!

Anyways, here's chapter 2. If I haven't said so already, this isn't going to be a very long story (chapter-wise) but the chapters are going to be fairly long for each one. Also, I apologize, the beginning chapters are a little slow, but I promise I have a lot of action and surprises coming up! I'm also sorry because I don't think I write a second grader very well. I feel like I'm making Takeru and Hikari a little smarter than they should be for their age, but I'm trying my best. Without further ado, here's chapter 2. Please enjoy and review!

* * *

Chapter 2:

The food was terrible. She felt really bad because her mommy just didn't seem to be very good at cooking at all. Her mom thought she was really good at cooking, but Hikari wasn't as naïve as everyone thought she was. Yes, she was only in the second grade, but she was a lot smarter than she was given credit for. She was smart enough to notice how her mother always gave herself only small portions of whatever it was that she had cooked.

She also was smart enough to understand why her parents always looked at her like she was a piece of glass. They thought she was fragile; like she could break. But her parents were not worried about her breaking into bits and pieces of broken glass- like she had seen when her mother had knocked over a glass bowl while she was working in the kitchen. No, her parents were afraid that she was going to die, and she knew why that was too.

It was only a couple of days ago when she had got back home from the hospital. For the longest time, she was very sick. She couldn't even remember the last time she was healthy. Wait a second, she did remember that day.

_It was a beautiful day outside. The sun was shining high up above and there were only a few scattered clouds here and there. A cool summer breeze was blowing so that it was not too hot out. Children were laughing as they played in the park while their parents sat in the shade of the trees, some watching like a hawk over their children while others were relaxed either reading or trying to take a nap. It was the best first day of summer she could ask for._

_Even better, they were finished with school for the summer. She was very excited about that. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy school because she did love spending time with her friends, but she wouldn't have to learn about multiplication and photosynthesis and whatever else they had learned over the year. And she would be able to spend more time with Taichi._

_She loved her brother so much. Whenever she needed someone to play with, he was there. Whenever she had hurt herself on the playground or scraped her knee, her brother was there to take care of her. Yeah, he could be kind of overprotective almost to the point where he acted like a parent, but he was pretty cool most of the time. She always wanted to be with him._

_They were walking through the park to their favorite ice cream shop. Now that school was officially over, Taichi came up with the idea that they should go celebrate. First they went to the park to play. She rode down all the slides, swung on the swing set, and even rode on the merry-go round. It was really fun, but she felt bad because she was playing with other kids her age while every time she looked over at Tai he was by himself. _

_She had noticed that Taichi was often by himself. He took her to the park quite often, and just about every time he was there she would see him either playing soccer or laying down in a tree- he liked climbing up trees for some reason- all by himself. At times she felt as if it were her fault. He always had to watch out for her, so what if it was because of her that Taichi didn't have any friends? When she had asked him about it one time, he had laughed it off. He said that he didn't have any friends because he was "too cool" for everyone else, and he reassured her that she was not the reason he didn't have friends. She didn't know if she believed that or not, but she decided she would trust him on that subject._

_"We're here Kari," her brother said cheerily. _

_She looked up and saw that Taichi was right. Their favorite ice cream shop was right in front of them, and the best part was there was no line! _

_She started running for the shop. "Let's get there before…" she said while running, but just then someone walked up to the front counter. "Aww," she pouted, not getting to the ice cream shop fast enough. _

_There were two people that were now ordering their ice cream. She could only see the backs of the two people, but she could tell they both were boys. They both had blonde hair, but one was significantly shorter than the other. The shorter one seemed to be about her age and he wore brown shorts, a green, long-sleeve shirt, and a strange green baseball cap that was on backwards. The other one was wearing a green, sleeveless turtle-neck, blue pants, and his blonde hair was spiked up in all different directions. _

_She stopped running and turned back around to her brother. _

_"Taichi, it looks like we're going to have to wait," she called back._

_When she looked at her brother, he was still standing where he had been just staring at something behind her. She looked back towards the ice cream shop and saw the two blonde boys had turned around. She could tell they were obviously brothers having the same blue eyes, blonde hair, and similar features. The little one was smiling happily at her, but the older brother was staring with his mouth slightly open looking back towards Taichi. She turned back around to see Taichi now running towards her. _

_"Hikari," he said with anger in her voice. Taichi didn't take his eyes off the two blonde boys. "We're leaving."_

_"What?" she asked confused. "Why Taichi?"_

_"Because of _them_," he said motioning towards the brothers. Then he took her arm and started dragging her away from the ice cream shop. She kept calling out Taichi's name telling him to stop, but he didn't. They just kept going until they were back at their apartment._

Taichi had apologized about dragging her all of that way and for not getting her ice cream, but she was not so worried about that- though it was rather rude on his part. She had asked him why the two blonde brothers had angered him so much, but every time she brought the topic up he would get very frustrated. She felt like she should know what happened, but for some reason she couldn't remember it.

Since then, she had stayed home. She wasn't sure how, but she had gotten sick the day after they got out of school. It started out not so bad, but it kept getting worse and worse until her parents had to take her to the emergency room. She had spent a couple of days in the hospital feeling completely miserable. She couldn't stop coughing, had a nasty fever, and felt very tired.

Being at the hospital was the worst thing that had ever happened to her. Not only did she feel terrible from the "pneumonia"- at least that's what the doctors, the people who wore all white all the time and wore strange masks over their mouths, had said- but her family was not happy. She had never seen her parents or her brother so scared before. Even when a big thunderstorm came in the middle of the night, they still didn't look as scared as they had in the hospital. Because of that she had thought that for some reason her face had changed into something very scary looking like a monster, but they had reassured her that there was nothing wrong with her face- much to her relief. And she had never seen her mother cry before. Her mom always was happy and wore a smile on her face except for when Taichi would break something trying to play soccer inside the apartment. But at the hospital all she had done was cry and look very sad. Even her dad and her brother had cried a little bit and Taichi used to brag that he never cried in his life. Her family's fear had made her scared as well. She didn't know what was wrong with her except that she was very sick.

All of that was over, though. She was finally home and had medicine from the hospital. She was starting to feel a little better, but she still felt miserable. Her cough did not seem like it would ever go away. She felt like she didn't have the strength to even walk around the house. She had a fever every day since she went to the hospital. And to add to her sickness, Taichi was gone.

Taichi was the only one who was able to make her feel better. It was hard for her to be happy with her being sick all the time and with the sad look her parents always gave her whenever they looked at her. Taichi, though, was always able to make her feel better. So many times she would spot her parents crying over her and she would feel terrible, but then Taichi would come and tell her everything was going to be all right. His smile seemed to fill her up with light and as long as she had him around, she knew everything was going to be all right.

Would she be able to last a whole week without Taichi? Even if she could, it was going to be the worst week yet. Why couldn't she have gone to camp with Taichi?

Without realizing it, her mouth uttered, "Mom, I want to go to camp."

"What?" her mother asked, caught off guard, "What was that Hikari?"

Realizing she had to explain herself now, "Why couldn't I… go to camp with… with Taichi?" she said, trying to stop herself from coughing, but failing.

Her mother looked right into her eyes. 'There it is again,' she thought to herself. Her mother's eyes started quivering and seemed like they were about to burst into tears. She was giving her the saddest of looks.

"You aren't healthy dear," she said quietly.

She had already figured that much out for herself and she had to stop herself from rolling her eyes at her mom. But then she got a great idea. It was just starting to form in her mind, but it seemed like it could work.

"What if I got… got better mommy?" she said, stifling the cough with some difficulty, "would I get to go to… to camp?"

It took her mother a while to answer, but she finally answered with a sad smile, "I don't know Hikari. You've been sick for such a long time…"

"But I'm already starting to feel better mommy! Please…" she said while trying what her parents and brother called the 'puppy dog' face. She didn't care what they called it, though, because puppies were cute and this face always seemed to help her get what she wanted.

Her mother sighed before saying, "I guess you could go, but only if you feel one-hundred percent better. You're still sick Hikari, even if you are…"

But she cut her mom off there. She ran to her mother and outstretched her arms. She wasn't very tall yet and her head only met her mother's waist, but she squeezed her mother's leg tightly.

"Thanks mommy!" she said happily.

Her mother patted her on the head and she now knew what her plan was for the next couple of days. Even though she wasn't feeling any better at all, she needed to pretend like she was better. If she was lucky enough, she'd be at summer camp with Taichi in a couple of days!

* * *

He was the happiest he had been in a long time, though that wasn't saying much. He often found himself feeling very sad recently. It was very lonely living with only his mother. She wasn't home very often, and when she was home she was usually working on her laptop. He used to ask her all the time if she could take him to the park, but every time she would say something about work being important and that he wouldn't understand. Over time he had given up bothering his mother about that.

There was something else he had learned not to bother his mother about; this being his asking of why Yamato and his father couldn't live with them anymore. He remembered they all used to live together a long time ago when he was a little kid, but now he only got to see his father and brother a couple of times here and there. He would ask his mother why but she would never give him a straightforward answer. She always seemed to avoid the question and a couple of times she would get mad and yell at him if he kept talking about it. At rough times like these he would start crying and his mother would say she was sorry and start crying as well. He started feeling worse, though, when he saw how he had made his mother start crying. His sadness had made other people sad.

That was where he learned to hide his sadness. If anyone would ask what "Takeru Takaishi" – his last name being his mother's old last name which she called her 'maiden' name- was like, they would say that he was a kind, happy-go-lucky kid. Most people seemed to think he was always happy because of the smile he wore on his face all the time. The truth was that he was sad most of the time. He usually came home from school to find his house empty. His mother wouldn't let him go out and play by himself so he didn't spend much time with his friends from school. His brother always seemed like he was angry whenever he actually got to see him. And his father was never around, even when he went and stayed over at his apartment. No, he wasn't happy at all, but he had to hide his sadness; he didn't want to make other people sad because of his sadness.

But now he was on his way to summer camp! He was going to spend the entire week with Yamato. His mother and father were finally seeing each other again for the first time in a very long time. And there was no school. It was going to be a great week.

As he looked around the car from the passenger seat- he had called 'dibs' on shotgun before Yamato had earning him rights to the front seat- he noticed that neither his father nor his brother seemed happy at all. Yamato was staring outside the window not saying a word, and his father was staring at the road ahead of him wearing a scowl on his face.

He felt his excitement starting to fall quickly so he looked outside the window look his brother was doing hoping there was something outside that would make him feel better. There wasn't, but after a while his father finally spoke up.

"So, umm, Takeru, are you looking forward to camp?"

He looked away from the window and to his father with a big smile. "Yes! I've been waiting so long to go to this camp!"

"That's good son," his father said emotionlessly.

"Yeah! We're going to have so much fun swimming, building campfires, eating s'mores…"

He kept on listing off fun things he was excited about doing at camp and even lost track of what he was saying. When he couldn't think of any more fun things at camp he added, "And I get to spend the whole week with Yamato!"

He looked back to his brother smiling, but Yamato didn't even look at him. He frowned and turned back around. 'Why wasn't Yamato happy to spend time with me?' he thought to himself, 'Does he not miss me?'

He waited for his father to say something, but he didn't. His father kept staring at the road with that same scowl on his face. He kept trying to think of what was wrong with his father and brother, but he didn't know the two guys very well. He did only get to see his family a couple of times off and on and that wasn't the same as living with someone. He missed his father and brother so badly, and he accidentally let a thought slip out of his mouth.

"Why don't you just come live with us again?" he asked before realizing he said it out loud.

His father acted like he didn't hear him and he heard Yamato scoff at him. Yamato spoke up for the first time on the whole car ride.

"This should be good."

His father sighed and still did not look at him. He wondered what was going to be so 'good' about this, but his father finally cleared his throat and started talking.

"Takeru… I don't know how to say this…"

"Just tell me dad," he insisted, noticing his father trying to avoid the question much like his mother would when he asked her about his brother and father.

"Fine, Takeru, your mommy and I… we used to love each other. We got married a long time ago and were happy together. Finally you two came along and we were even happier. But then, a couple of years after you were born, your mommy and I stopped being happy together. We fought all the time and we ended up deciding not to live with each other anymore. Your mother moved out of our old apartment and took you with her while I stayed and kept Yamato. This is why we can't come live with you anymore."

"But daddy," he tried, "I make you happy don't I? I know Yamato makes mommy happy, and don't I make you happy too Yamato?"

"Takeru," his father said pleadingly, "You know that isn't the reason son. I love you, and Yamato loves you, and your mom loves Yamato, but…"

"Look! We're here!" he said excitedly as the camp came into view. He put on a huge smile and acted like he was excited to get there. Well, he truthfully was excited to get out of his father's van and start having fun, but he was not happy. Any hope that he had of Yamato and his father coming to live with him and his mother was practically all destroyed. He was still a child, but he still knew enough to know that his father wasn't about to start living with him again anytime soon. He still clung onto a little piece of hope that their family would be reunited again sometime, but that's all it was; a little piece that could be shattered if messed with too much. His hope was at its last thread, but it was still there.

He literally heard his father breathe a sigh of relief as he turned into the summer camp. His father parked the vehicle- the van was still turned on- and he excitedly jumped out.

He looked over the campgrounds with a real smile of happiness on his face. There was a woods not too far off in the distance which would be great for hiking. The buildings- he guessed that would be where they would sleep- looked very cozy. There was a swimming pool in the middle of the campground along with some patches of sand with a net in the middle. He also saw a couple of bigger buildings which he didn't think were meant to live in, basketball courts- basketball was one of his favorite sports to play,- and there were lots of people. Some of the kids were his age, but there were mostly kids who looked older than he did. The place looked amazing, and he hoped he would have a fun time this week.

"Here's your bag Takeru," he barely heard his father say as his attention was drawn away from the sight of the camp. He looked back to see his father dropping the bag next to him.

"Thanks dad!"

His father smiled at him, but it was a weird smile. It looked like it was forced and he knew his father was not really happy at the moment. He ignored it, though. His father was a good person, and he knew his father would be all right in the end.

"Bye Takeru, bye Yamato. Have fun at camp," his father said putting his arms on the two brother's shoulders. He smiled back at his father, but he heard his brother mumble under his breath something that sounded like "Whatever."

Their father must not have heard it, though, because he walked back to the running vehicle and drove away waving back at them. Once his father was gone he returned his attention back to the camp and ran off without any warning to Yamato.

He heard Yamato shout after him telling him to slow down, but he ignored him. The sooner he got to camp, the sooner he would not have to worry about being sad anymore. At camp he was going to have fun and be with his brother.

When he couldn't run anymore he stopped to catch his breath. He looked around at all the different kids who were walking around the camp. He saw a boy with red hair holding onto what looked like a yellow laptop looking around the place with a very confused look on his face. There were a couple of kids playing soccer. One of them was a boy wearing a blue helmet on his head. He had red hair as well… wait a second, that was a girl. He blinked to make sure his eyes weren't failing him, but they weren't. There was a girl playing soccer; he thought for sure she was a boy until she turned around. A boy with blue hair was sitting on some stairs leading up to one of the cabins with a worried look on his face. He wasn't much fun to look at, so he kept looking around and spotted a girl with a very funny pink hat on standing right in front of him.

"Oh, hello there," the girl said with a high-pitched voice.

"Hi!" he replied happily, "I'm Takeru. Your hat is cool."

"You think so?" she asked trying to look up at the cowboy hat.

He nodded to which she smiled and said, "Thanks. I knew it was going to be a big hit. I'm Mimi by the way."

"Hi Mimi," he said stretching out his hand. Being with his mother all the time, he had learned many things that he should do from her. One of those was to always shake a person's hand when they introduced themselves to you- "…unless the guy or girl looks like a creep. Then just run away as fast as you can." Mimi did not look like a creep, though, and she also stretched out her hand. They shook hands smiling at each other before Mimi said, "It was nice to meet you Takeru, but I'm going to go to my cabin now. I have to set up my bed so that it's perfect!"

"Bye Mimi," he said as she walked away from him. He watched her go, and as he did he heard someone else come up to him. He turned and saw his brother standing next to him bent over with his hands on his knees.

"Don't run away like that squirt," Yamato said, out of breath.

"Sorry," he said, though he wasn't really sorry.

After he caught his breath and stood back up straight, his brother asked, "Who was that anyways?"

"That was Mimi," he said with a smile, "She's very nice and very cute!"

Yamato laughed at this, but Takeru didn't care. It was true, and he knew Yamato would have thought the same thing if he had met her.

He kept looking around camp when something caught his eye. There was some sort of figure sitting in a tree. At first he thought he was seeing things, but he wasn't. There was a boy laying down on one of the tree's branches. He had crazy brown hair and he wore a pair of goggles on his head. He was also sleeping, and he worried if the boy had a bad dream that he would fall off the tree. For some reason, though, the boy seemed familiar. He decided he'd ask Yamato about it.

"Hey Yamato, who's that?" he asked pointing towards the tree.

"Who's wh…" his brother started but then stopped mid-sentence. Yamato was looking up to the boy sleeping in the tree suddenly shaking with anger.

"Yamato…" he tried, but his brother cut him off.

"We're going away from here. Come on Takeru," his brother said with frustration evident in his brother's voice. Without a second thought, he was being dragged through the camp by his brother. This week wasn't starting out the way he had hoped it would.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own digimon!

Thanks for the reviews everybody! One thing I want to address, though, is dealing with the Japanese names. I am going to keep writing with the Japanese names because 1) I already wrote them this way and I want to keep it uniform throughout 2) I really like the Japanese names better and 3) Once you get the hang of them you will start to like them more too (at least I hope) .

Sorry it took a while for an update but I have been busy finishing up school and doing other stuff. I apologize ahead of time because this is a very long chapter. It is twice the length of a normal chapter and probably should've been split into two, but I want to keep with what I have planned and keep this at 13 chapters total. So I warn you that some of the chapters may be abnormally long like this one is. I also keep adding things like Mimi's encounter with Takeru and Yamato's and Sora's flashbacks. I also warn you that Mimi's and Koushiro's parts are a bit rushed and I honestly dont' remember writing Yamato's or Sora's... But anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter and please keep reviewing!

* * *

Chapter 3:

Of all the people who he had wanted _not _to be at camp, _he _was number one on the list. Even worse, Takeru was with him which brought back memories of their previous fights.

What had Takeru asked him? Oh, he asked _who _the kid with the messy brown hair and the ridiculous goggles who was sleeping up in that tree was. He knew who the kid was. His name was Taichi Kamiya. He hated that name. He hated that guy. Ever since that one day those many years ago…

But now was not the time to worry about Taichi. He was after all finally at camp and with his little brother. Now was the time where the fun began, or at least that's what he kept telling himself.

No, he was happy to be here. He didn't get to see Takeru very often, and this week was a good time not only to have fun with his little brother but to also see how Takeru was doing.

He got a little nervous on their way here when Takeru had asked their father why the parents could not live together anymore. He knew they had never told Takeru the truth yet, and Matt couldn't blame them. Telling a little kid why his family was not so much a family anymore wasn't easy on anybody, and he knew it wouldn't be any different with his mom or dad. Although it was hard to do, he still wished they would tell him eventually. He remembered when his parents had told him they didn't love each other anymore and were getting a divorce.

_It was dark outside. He was in his room and laying in his bed, but he was not sleeping like he was supposed to. He was sure Takeru was sleeping in his room right now, but he wasn't. He couldn't fall asleep. _

_For the past week or so all he could hear when he went to bed was the loud, arguing voices that were his parent's. Then one night, he heard them arguing even noisier than what they usually did. That was the night his mother had taken Takeru with her along with all of her belongings and… left. He had cried a lot that night asking his father where they had gone, but his father was in as many tears as he was. That was not a very fun night._

_His parents were once again talking, but they were not arguing. His mother had brought Takeru with her and the two brothers spent the day playing together. He noticed that his parents didn't talk to each other that evening as they watched their two sons. _

_Now there he was, trying to fall asleep but not being able to as many questions rose up in his mind. He was having trouble sleeping the past few days because of his mother moving out, and today was not any different. _

_He listened to his parent's voices, but he could not understand any words. He could tell they were talking about something that wasn't pleasant. 'But at least they aren't arguing,' he thought to each other. Maybe they were talking about his mother and Takeru moving back in with them?_

_He didn't realize his parent's had stopped talking and he was surprised when he heard a knock on his door. He watched the door handle turn and a creaking sound filled the air as his door was opened. His mother's head stuck out from the opening and looked inside the room. Her eyes landed on his._

_"Yamato, honey, can you come here," she asked, her voice in a gravelly tone. He could tell she had been crying._

_He nodded and jumped out of his bed. She moved out of the way for him as he walked out of his room and shut the door behind him. His father was sitting on the couch and his mother was making her way to a chair. He walked to the middle of the living room and looked from his mother to his father._

_"Sit Yamato," his father ordered, though his voice wasn't at the usual perkiness it always was. _

_He obeyed and took a seat next to his father on the couch._

_"What is it?" he asked, wanting to get straight to the point. He could tell this was going to be important._

_His father sighed heavily and cleared his throat. He said, "Look, son, your mother and I… we haven't been getting along lately."_

_'Big shocker there,' he thought silently to himself._

_His mother took a deep breath before continuing for his father, "There's no easy way to say this Yamato. Your father and I… we…"_

_"…we are getting a divorce," his father said, frustration clear in his voice._

_He wasn't very old, but he knew what a divorce was, and a divorce was not good news. "What," he exclaimed, "Why?"_

_"We just don't love each other, son," his mother said, sounding like she was about to start crying again._

_He couldn't believe what he was hearing! "What do you mean you don't love each other anymore?"_

_"Yamato," his father said warningly, letting him know that his father did not want him to wake up Takeru with his shouting, "Try to understand. Your mother and I have been arguing a lot lately, and now that your mother has moved out we've decided we're going to get a divorce."_

_"But…" he tried, but no words came to him._

_"I'm sorry Yamato, but it is for the best. I'm going to move out with Takeru and your father is going to stay here. You're old enough to decide who you want to stay with, but we are not changing the fact that we are getting divorced."_

_Just when he thought things couldn't get worse, they did. What his mother had said meant that he had to decide whether he was going to live with his mother and Takeru and never get to see his father, or live with his father and never get to see his mother or Takeru. It was then that it hit him; they never were truly going to be a family ever again. And it was all his parent's fault!_

That had been a rough night and although he still was mad at his parents, he was happy now that they had told him about the divorce and why it had to be done. Honestly, he still didn't agree with the decision his parents had made. He thought it was selfish on their part to have him and his brother split up and to have their family torn apart just because the two of them couldn't get along anymore. Maybe one day he would see what his parent's had saw that made them decide to ruin their family, but until then he was holding his grudge.

Because of his parent's divorce and his decision to live with his father- he did not think it was fair or right for his father to be all alone- he had learned to cherish the few times he spent with his little brother. Takeru always made him smile, even when they were little kids, and he missed that about his brother all the time. So many times when Takeru visited he would be feeling upset or sad- usually when he was thinking about his parent's divorce- Takeru was always able to cheer him up. For some reason, his little brother always seemed to fill him up with the hope that everything was going to be all right. Now, his little brother was going to spend the entire week with him, and that put a smile on his face, even if it was a small one.

Turning around from _that _kid and grabbing his little brother's wrist, he pulled his brother through the camp towards the registration building.

"Come on Takeru, let's go find out where we'll be staying."

Completely forgetting about seeing the brown haired kid in the tree, Takeru added happily, "I hope we get that cabin!" he said pointing to a huge building in the middle of the campground.

He laughed a little bit, "That's not a cabin, bro; it's the dining hall."

"Oooo," his brother exclaimed, "Do you think the food is good? I sure hope it is."

"I know it will be," he assured his little brother.

Not too long later, they were walking up the stairs that led to the registration building. He opened the door allowing Takeru to run in first. He followed and looked around the wooden building.

It wasn't anything special. The door they came through led to one big room. There were doors lined up on the sides of the walls that all had numbers on them. He realized that they must be some sort of rooms or cabins for the campers, or maybe even they were for the people who worked at the camp. In the middle of the room was a woman standing behind a desk, and a couple of kids- some older, some younger than he was- were lined up in front of the desk.

He and Takeru took their places at the end of the line and waited their turn. He looked to see how his little brother was, but the little guy seemed as if nothing was wrong as his brother looked up at him with a big smile on his face.

He loved his little brother, but sometimes he got jealous of him. Takeru always looked as if nothing was wrong with him. He was sure that everyone who saw his little brother never suspected anything was wrong with his life. No one would ever be able to guess that something as bad as his parent's divorce had happened in the little blonde's life. He wanted that. He wanted to be happy all the time, even if his parents were separated and he didn't get to see his brother as often as he wanted to.

"Hello there, welcome to summer camp," a high pitched voice said, shaking him from his thoughts.

He hadn't even realized that the line of children was gone and he and Takeru were now at the front.

"Hi, thank you," he said mindlessly.

"Hi!" Takeru said loudly standing up on his tippy-toes to look over the desk.

"Hi how are you?" the girl asked Takeru with excitement.

"I'm good," Takeru said happily, giving the girl one of his signature smiles.

"Good. And your names?"

"Yamato Ishida and Takeru Takaishi," he supplied. The girl then started flipping through a bunch of pages in her binder as she looked up their names.

"Strange, you too look so similar. I could've sworn you were brothers," she said, still looking through her book.

Sadness came up inside of him. That was another that had happened because of the divorce. Takeru, being that he was staying with his mother, had switched his last name to his mother's last name, Takaishi. He had stayed an Ishida being that he still lived with his father. He didn't like to think of it that way, but it was true; he and Takeru weren't brothers anymore, they were only half-brothers.

"We are brothers," Takeru said before he could say anything.

"Oh," the girl said looking sympathetically between him and his little brother as she realized the truth. She mouthed a word that looked like 'Sorry' to him, and he nodded.

She went back to her binder before calling out, "Aha! There you two are! Yamato, you are staying in cabin B while Takeru here is staying in cabin D."

"We're not in the same cabin?" he asked.

"Oh no," she said, "We make our living arrangements based on age. Takeru is going to be staying with the second through fourth graders while you are grouped with the fifth through seventh graders. That is how most of this camp is going to work; almost all of our activities are going to only be with each age group."

"You mean I won't get to see my brother?" Takeru asked worriedly.

"Don't worry Takeru, there will be many times you will see your brother. We will give you some free times throughout the week where you will be free to use any of the camp's facilities. You can see your brother then, and also during meal times of course."

He wasn't liking this at all. All the excitement- the little that he had- for this week was slowly dwindling. He had been looking forward to spending time with his little brother and having fun together without having to deal with their parents. Now, though, it sounded like he wasn't going to see his brother much at all, and, just to add on top of this, he was most likely going to see a lot of that _Taichi _kid.

Not wanting to get into an argument with the girl, he said, "Thank you," before turning, holding onto Takeru's wrist, and walking away from the desk. He opened the door and walked outside, letting go of his brother's wrist.

He looked down to make sure Takeru was still holding onto his luggage when he led his brother through the camp grounds. He was still pretty worked up not only about the counselor reminding him of his parent's divorce but also that he wouldn't be staying in the same cabin as Takeru. He had known the camp was going to have kids from grades third through seventh and it made sense to separate them into younger and older groups, but he never thought of it and right now he wasn't happy about it.

But there was nothing he could do about it, so he decided they might as well find their cabins and maybe get a bite to eat afterwards. He hadn't eaten in what seemed like forever.

"Are you two looking for your cabins?" a voice asked from behind him. He turned around and saw a dark haired man wearing big, square glasses. He was wearing an un-buttoned button down shirt and blue jeans with a black belt. He recognized this man right away because it was his teacher.

"Oh, hi ," he said.

"Yamato, nice to see you again, and this little guy looks like he's your brother. What's your name son," Mr. Fujiyama asked.

Takeru smiled and answered, "My name's Takeru."

His teacher smiled in return and said, "Nice to meet you Takeru. Would you like me to take you to your cabin?"

"Actually , I was going to…" he tried, but his teacher already took a hold of Takeru's arm and was walking off in some random direction talking to his little brother. He was just about to run over and knock his teacher out for taking his brother away like that, but then he realized he would probably get sent home for that. He took a deep breath and said to himself, "Just calm your head, Yamato, it's going to get better."

He kept walking around the campgrounds and found his cabin fairly quickly- the campground wasn't really that big of a place. The cabin didn't seem like much; it was just a log cabin-like building with stone steps leading up to the front door. It sure seemed better than staying in a tent all week, however.

Taking them by twos, he ran up the stairs and opened the front door to the cabin. He walked inside and didn't find much, not that he was expecting much. The front door led him to a big, open room that had two bunk beds set against two of the walls. To his left there was another door and when he opened it up he saw that it was just a bathroom with a shower. It wasn't much, but this was where he was going to be staying for the next week, so he might as well get used to it.

He hadn't seen them when he first entered, but as he walked towards one of the empty bunk beds he saw he wasn't alone. Sitting on the lower bed with a computer on his lap and a bunch of different computer cords surrounding him was a red-haired kid. He seemed very busy with whatever he was doing on the computer, but he could see the scowl on the red-heads face showing him that this kid wasn't happy that he was here. On top of the same bunk bed lying down was a blue-haired kid. This kid seemed a bit older than he and the red-headed kid, and since he didn't recognize this blue-head he figured he was in a different grade.

"Hey, I take it you guys are my roommates for the week, huh?" he said to the two kids as he walked over to the empty bunk bed and set his bag down.

He heard some sort of frantic movement and looked over to see the blue head looking at him as if he were some sort of ghost. The kid was breathing heavily, but he finally calmed down, a little bit. The red-head hadn't even budged a muscle, however.

"Did I scare you?" he asked, holding back a laugh.

The kid on top nodded. There was a little silence where he took a seat on his bed- officially claiming it as 'his' bed- before one of his cabin mates spoke up. It was the blue-head.

"Hi, sorry about that. I tend to be a bit jumpy, which, I think I'm allergic to jumping… but anyways, I'm Joe. It's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you," he replied, "I'm Yamato. And who's the computer-whiz sitting underneath you?"

"Oh, that's Koushiro. He doesn't talk too much. I don't know why but he doesn't seem too happy," Joe said, looking down to the bed underneath him.

"Hey Koushiro, I'm Yamato," he tried, but Koushiro didn't show any sign that he heard him at all. "Do you think he's deaf?" he asked Joe. Joe simply shrugged.

"For your information, I am not deaf and can hear all that you two are saying."

"Woah," he said, looking up at Joe with raised eyebrows, "He can talk."

"Of course I can talk! What do you think I am some sort of…" Koushiro tried before he cut him off.

"Koushiro, I was just joking dude. It's nice to meet you," he said with a chuckle.

Koushiro mumbled something under his breath but the scowl on his face softened. He took that as a good sign.

He sat down next to his bag and lied back onto his bed. The bed was surprisingly very soft along with the pillows. It seemed like he was going to at least be able to sleep well on these things.

Just as he was about to close his eyes and relax for a bit- starting to think that maybe this week wasn't completely ruined yet- the cabin door flew open. He opened his eyes and looked towards the door to see what he guessed was his other roommate- also his bunk mate- and immediately glared at the kid. He sat up immediately and got to his feet, not removing the glare from the kid. It wasn't just any kid that he disliked from his class, though- there weren't a lot but there was enough that he didn't like- it was _that _kid. Taichi.

He watched Taichi look around the cabin holding onto a bag that no doubt contained the clothes and other things Taichi would need for the week. As _he _scanned the cabin, their eyes finally met. Instantly Taichi was glaring at him and his own glare intensified- if that was even possible because he was giving quite a fierce glare as it was.

"What are you doing here?" the wild brown-haired kid asked, anger evident in his voice.

"I was about to ask you the same question," he said with just as much frustration.

"Hey, don't you go pointing fingers here blondie. If I knew you were coming to this camp I would have decided not to come at all."

He replied, "Same goes for me."

"Oh, where's your pathetic brother by the way. I'm kinda surprised you let the little chum out of your sight with the way you're always hanging on him all the time."

Something just broke inside of him. Whatever control he was using over his anger was completely gone now. It was one thing for someone to make fun of him, but if they were to make fun of Takeru… that was a completely different story. Funny, that was after all how their hatred began in the first place. But he didn't have time to think about that; right now he had to go beat Taichi to a pulp.

He charged towards Taichi drawing back a fist. He heard Joe say something from behind him, but he wasn't about to listen. Taichi had made fun of Takeru, and for that he was going to pay.

Just as he was about to reach Taichi, however, the goggle-head ran out of the cabin. He stopped himself right as he got to the door. Taichi was already down the stairs and running away at full speed. Maybe he was wrong. This week was completely ruined.

* * *

Why did she have to be stuck with these people? Out of all of the girls she could room with, it had to be these prissy, girly- for lack of a better term- girls. They were "woo"-ing as they talked about how they did their hair and what brand of clothes they were wearing. She didn't know if she could stand all of this for an entire week.

"… and look at _her. _What did you say her name was, Mimi?"

She looked over to the girl who acted as the leader of the five girls- there were three bunk beds in her cabin making six people total. This leader was in a blue dress. She had blonde hair that was tied into two pigtails. She knew that girl because she was in her grade in school. It was Kumiko.

She couldn't remember the names to the other four girls save for one who was in a pink dress with a ridiculous pink cowboy hat- for some reason the girl had thought it went good with her outfit but honestly Sora didn't think it would have went with any outfit. The cowboy girl had introduced herself to her as Mimi and Mimi had said she was new to Odaiba and had thought it was a good idea to go to summer camp to meet new friends. She had been kind with Mimi, but she didn't think they exactly made for the best of friends. Especially if Mimi started hanging out with these girls.

"Oh, that's Sora. She's a lovely girl," Mimi said, smiling up at her.

"Don't be ridiculous, my dear," Kumiko said agitatedly, "That girl is a wretch. Trust me, she's in my grade. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."

"If you say so," Mimi said uncertainly.

'Great,' she thought to herself, 'now it's only a matter of time before Kumiko has Mimi making fun of her too.'

"I do say so! I mean just look at her! No sense of style at all. Her hair is a mess. There's that ridiculous hat on her head, if you even could call that a hat. It looks more like a helmet to me!"

Kumiko finished with a laugh and all of the other girls laughed as well. She noted, though, that Mimi did not laugh… but it was only going to be a matter of time, she was sure of that.

All she knew now was that she had to get out of this cabin before she started going insane. She could handle a few jokes from Kumiko at school, but this was summer camp. She was supposed to escape from all of this and have a great time this week, and she would rather do anything else at the moment than stand there and be ridiculed. So she dropped her bag on her bunk bed and walked out of the cabin. She could hear Kumiko behind her as the girls roared in laughter, but she did her best to ignore them.

Not too long later the girls were out of earshot and she relaxed. She had been to this camp a couple of times before this time so she knew her way around pretty well. Right now she was on the edge of the campground standing next to a couple of trees. Deciding it would be a good idea to take some time and chill, she sat down with her back against a tree.

The day was quite nice outside. It was a little cold, but the sun was shining high in the sky and there were only a few clouds up above. She took in a deep breath of the fresh, outdoors air and then let it out.

She needed this time to relax. The little ordeal with Kumiko was annoying, but it was nothing new to her; she could handle that. What was really bothering her was her fight with her mother. She had left on such bad terms with her mother, but that was her mother's fault. It was her decision if she wanted to play soccer or not; her mother had no say in that. And then she thought about her father. Her dad was never home! He never went to any of her sporting events or school events. He didn't even show up to her fourth grade graduation or her championship soccer game. There were many times he wondered if her father even loved her at all.

Then there was the car ride to the bus stop. She had taken the bus to go to camp, but her father had decided he would drive her to the closest bus stop rather than her walk. On that short car ride, she had nearly gotten into another argument with one of her parents. She wondered what he had said that made her ticked off, but then she remembered.

_It felt really awkward. Here she was sitting in the passenger's side staring outside the window as they drove through the city. Her father hadn't said a word to her yet, and she didn't know if she was supposed to say anything or not. Surely her mother had told him about their little fight that had happened outside. Did he not have anything to say about that, or was he trying to avoid the topic altogether? She didn't know. She did know, though, that she couldn't wait to get away from her parents and be at camp._

_Just when she thought her father wasn't going to say anything the whole car ride, he cleared his throat and said shyly, "How are you Sora?"_

_What kind of question was that? How was she? She was absolutely terrible! She was angry at her mother for saying she couldn't play soccer anymore. She was sad that her parents didn't care about anything that she did. She was upset with herself for getting so worked up and for yelling at her mother. But she had deserved it; she really did!_

_When her father could tell she wasn't going to answer he said, "Sora, you know we both love you right?"_

_She couldn't stay silent at this. "No you two don't! Mom wants me to quit the one thing that makes me happy, which she doesn't even try to put any effort into watching me do because 'girls shouldn't play sports.' And you! You are never home! You haven't shown up to anything I've been a part of! You have to 'work' all the time. Work is obviously more important to you than I am!"_

_"Sora," her father tried, but he had already pulled the car over seeing they were at their destination. _

_She was done with this. Tears were already threatening to fall from her eyes, and she really didn't want to cry right now. This was the week of camp! Everything was supposed to be fun and happy, not aggravating and making her want to cry. So she opened the door, grabbed her bag and slammed the door shut saying a quick, "Bye dad."_

'You know we both love you,' he had said. That was a joke. If her mother really loved her she would let her continue playing soccer and at least try to enjoy watching her play it. If her father really loved her than he would not be gone all the time. He would have shown up to her championship soccer game if he really loved her. No, her parents did not love her at all.

She could feel tears threatening to fall from her eyes, but then she saw a door to one of the cabins fly open suddenly. She watched as a boy she recognized from her class ran out of the cabin at a dead sprint. A blonde boy, also in her class, was standing by the door as the brown-haired boy ran in her direction.

Something was obviously up, but Yamato, the blonde guy, didn't try to follow after Taichi, the brown-head, so she figured that everything was ok for now. She had known the two boys had a little disliking between them, and by the looks of it they were cabin mates for the week. That seemed like a cabin that was going to be brewing with trouble.

Taichi continued running towards her, but her fellow soccer team member didn't notice her. He ran to a tree next to her and started climbing up. When he got to a steady branch, the goggle-head sat with his back against the tree trying to regain his breath.

"Hey, whatcha doing up there?" she called out to the boy.

He jumped and she was afraid Taichi was going to fall out of the tree, but he steadied himself and looked down. "Oh, Sora, I didn't see you there."

"Yeah, but you still didn't answer my question," she replied.

"Well," he said looking back at the cabin, frustration apparent on his face, "That Yamato kid is rooming with me. We despise each other so it didn't take long for us to get into a fight."

She nodded. Like she said before, she knew they didn't like each other, but she never knew why. Maybe now was her chance to find out once and for all.

"Why don't you like him Taichi?"

She was met with silence, but Taichi finally spoke up, a little reluctantly.

"It all started back when we were in second grade. I was playing in the park with my little sister, Hikari. We were laughing and having a good old time like we usually did when all of a sudden Yamato walked over holding his little brother's hand. Takeru, I think that's his brother's name, was crying for some reason and had a scraped up knee. Yamato was glaring at the two of us. He said something like we shouldn't be laughing and that it was rude. We both were so confused and I tried to tell him that there was some sort of misunderstanding, but he wouldn't listen. Instead he pushed me to the ground and walked off with his brother who was crying even worse by that time. I was about to get up and fight back, but Hikari had started crying too and begged me not to. And ever since then I've hated him and his pathetic brother."

So this was what all of this was about. There had been some little incident that had happened a couple of years ago that caused all of this. She didn't know what to make of Taichi's story. On one hand, she thought it was right for Taichi to be mad at Yamato. If anyone had pushed her down for no reason she wouldn't necessarily like that person either. On the other hand, though, she knew Yamato enough to know that he was a quiet person, but he was also very caring and protective especially when it came to his little brother, Takeru. She tried to think of what to say, but she couldn't.

"Hey," Taichi exclaimed, all of a sudden, "I've got a great idea! Why don't the two of us work together to ruin Yamato's week?"

"What?!" she yelled out in surprise.

He shook his head, "I'm not trying to be a jerk or anything, but he deserves it. I mean, all he's done to me over the past few years is glare at me and say hurtful things. Don't you think he deserves to be punished for that?"

"Maybe…" she said, trying to think of a way to get out of this.

"Exactly my point! And this is the perfect way to get back at him. He obviously came here to have a fun time, so why don't we just make it the opposite. We can play jokes on him, make fun of him behind his back, all kinds of things! If we're lucky, maybe he'll even realize that what he did was wrong and he won't hate me anymore!"

"Hold on a minute Taichi," she tried. This was escalating very quickly and it didn't look like it was going to end very pretty.

"Are you trying to tell me you're on Yamato's side?" he said, glaring at her.

"Of course not… but" she started to say but was cut off.

"Then you're on my side! Come on Sora, I can't do this on my own! Besides, I need a friend for camp. I don't have any friends and I don't have my little sister here with me. Please Sora!" Taichi cried out, his eyes shaking like they were full of tears.

How could she say no? She was already starting to not like Yamato because of what Taichi had said he had done. And what Taichi had said was true. Sure, he played soccer and all, but outside of that he didn't talk to or hang out around anybody at all. Except for his little sister, Hikari. She was always by his side and he did whatever he could to make sure she was safe and happy. 'Kind of like Yamato with Takeru,' she thought to herself but she shoved that thought to the side. And Taichi was giving him the most pleading of looks too. She sighed as she started to nod.

"Fine, I'll help you Taichi," she consented reluctantly. He gave her the biggest of smiles and then made his way down the tree. It didn't take long before the goggle head was standing right beside her smiling.

"We're going to have so much fun this week Sora," he said happily. And Sora even smiled back at Taichi. Maybe helping him out would help get her mind off of some things she couldn't stop thinking about.

* * *

Making friends in a new place didn't seem like it was going to be all that hard at all. Well, she knew she had a lovely personality, and she was simply amazing; who wouldn't want to be friends with her? She had been a little nervous at first when she came to camp, but all of her insecurities were gone. She was hanging around a group of awesome, stylish, beautiful girls- just like herself- and they were having a great time.

Right now they were talking about Sora. 'You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there,' Kumiko had told her. At first Mimi had thought Kumiko was wrong. Sora was a very nice girl when she had first met her when she arrived at camp. She was very kind, caring, and didn't make fun of her even though she was the new girl. What Kumiko was saying now about Sora, however, made her squirm in her shoes for ever thinking that.

"She plays soccer you know! She doesn't dress up for school or even try to make herself look nice- though that would take a lot of effort," Kumiko winked at the girls who all exploded in laughter, "and she's always hanging around those boys. It almost would be better if she were a boy herself."

Mimi felt bad for talking bad about Sora. She always thought that one should be sincere to other people, and talking bad about someone behind their back was not very sincere at all. But the things that Sora had done. She listened to Kumiko's stories of how Sora would bully people all the time, would make fun of other girls calling them 'prissy' and 'good-for –nothing,' and would do just nasty things. Kumiko had told her that one day Sora walked over to Kumiko's locker and pulled her hair as hard as she could for no reason. Mimi didn't know if all that Kumiko had said was true or not because she hadn't been there, but all of the other girls were nodding their heads and saying things like 'that was terrible,' amongst others.

Who was she to not believe her new friends? And since she believed all these things, she started forming resentment towards Sora. How could a girl be that cruel to other people for no reason! That was even worse than making fun of someone behind their back!

"So do you still think Sora is a sweet girl, Mimi?" Kumiko asked her, staring her down.

She shook her head. "No way! At least not after what you all have told me!"

Kumiko smiled at her, "Good."

At that time a bell rang out loudly. She looked around in confusion, but none of the others seemed surprised by this. They all just stood up and started walking out of the cabin, Kumiko leading the group of girls. She hurriedly jumped to her feet and followed her new friends.

"What in the world did that bell ring for?" she asked the girl closest to her. Her name was Harumi and she was wearing blue jeans and a white tee-shirt. Her blonde highlights shone brightly in the sun and she looked beautiful. She smiled inwardly as the thought that she was now a part of the "cool" and "good-looking" girls' group.

"That's the lunch bell, of course," Harumi said rolling her eyes as if she should have known that. She didn't know why Harumi had said it like that. She had never been here before, so there was no way that she would know the bell was the lunch bell, but she ignored it. Maybe this was how the girls around here acted.

"Oh," she replied. Now that they were outside she could see all of her fellow campers walking in various groups towards the huge building in the center of camp which she figured was the dining hall. As she walked with her friends, she saw a little boy with blonde hair run past her. She smiled as the little boy ran as fast as his stubby legs could take him. Then she saw the big green ball cap the boy was wearing and recognized the little boy.

"Oh, hi Takeru!" she shouted out hoping the boy would hear her so she wouldn't look dumb calling out random names. That little boy was so cute and nice when she first saw him so she wanted to say hi.

The short blonde stopped and turned around, confused as to who had shouted his name. Then the little boy spotted her waving at him and ran at her.

"Hi Mimi!" Takeru said coming to a stop right in front of her. He was looking up at her with the biggest smile on his face and she couldn't help but smile right back.

"Hey," she said, "Are you ready to go eat?"

Takeru rubbed his belly and nodded his head saying, "Yes! I'm so hungry I could eat just about anything. But I hope their food tastes good…"

"I'm sure it…" she started but she was cut off.

"Ah hem!" a girl said in a high pitched voice. She looked behind her to see Kumiko staring at her with a look of disappointment on her face. Kumiko shook her head and said, "Mimi, my dear, we do not talk to little kids! We only talk amongst ourselves, so, you whose name I do not care about, shoo!"

Kumiko flung her hands at Takeru as if to push him away from their group. She looked down at Takeru who looked at her confused. Shrugging her shoulders and mouthing 'Sorry' she turned around and continued walking with her group. She looked over her shoulder to see Takeru frowning at her. She watched him put his head down and slowly followed them as they walked to the dining hall. A pang of guilt went through her for doing that to the sweet little boy. She didn't understand why talking to Takeru was a bad thing, but if Kumiko had told her not to do it she wasn't going to do it. She trusted Kumiko and she was going to do what she said even if some of the things were uncomfortable to her. She didn't want to end up like Sora.

It took them a while to get their food and find a place to sit with the line being very long. She had to admit, though, the food looked pretty good. She had two slices of pizza along with some potato chips and even a bowl of fruit for dessert. They took a seat at an empty table filling almost the entirety of it except for a couple of seats towards the end. She had to sit on the end- being the new girl and all- next to a couple of girls who she had forgotten their names. She didn't mind sitting on the end, though. She could look through the dining hall and watch all of the other kids.

As she looked around eating her pizza- which did not taste as good as it looked, big surprise there- she saw Takeru again. He was sitting next to another blonde who had to be his brother; what with the same blonde hair, blue eyes, and similar features, they had to be brothers. There also was a red-haired kid sitting all by himself with a laptop in front of him. She also spotted Sora and a kid with wild brown hair sitting next to each other with a couple other boys. 'Maybe what the other girls were saying about her really were true,' she thought to herself. She decided she would think about it later, though.

She kept looking around the dining hall at all the different kids that were there. Everyone seemed very happy and she decided she was going to love it here. She already had friends and she also knew some people to stay away from, so that was good.

Then a boy with blue hair walked up to her. She had seen him before standing with his tray of food looking around for a place to sit. He must have spotted the empty seat next to her and decided to come over and sit with them.

"Hi," the boy said nervously, "Can I… uh… sit here?"

She had to admit the boy was too cute. Not in _that _way but in the way he held his tray so close to his body and the way that he stuttered out the words. He was so nervous and for all she knew, the boy might've been new here as well.

"Why of…" she started, but once again she was cut off.

"Excuse me!"

She winced. She knew by now whose voice that was; Kumiko's.

"What do you think you're doing?" Kumiko shouted out. The boy, who was going to sit down next to her, stopped in his place.

"I'm going to sit…" the blue haired boy tried, but he stopped when Kumiko suddenly broke out in laughter. Once Kumiko started, then Harumi and the other girls joined in. She watched the boy's face turn a bright red as the laughter grew louder. A couple of people from the nearby tables were looking over at them and were laughing at the blushing boy as well.

"You actually thought _we _would let _you _sit at _our _table?!" Harumi said in-between laughs.

"You must be kidding me. Please tell me you're kidding me," Kumiko said laughing as well.

She felt terrible, but there was nothing she could do. If she said something in front of her friends then they would make fun of her as well, but she couldn't sit and do nothing while this boy got made fun of for nothing! She had an inward debate, but she ultimately decided that she wasn't going to do anything. She needed her friends, and right now these were the only ones she had.

The boy looked at her with a hopeful expression on his face, but she shook her head at him. He nodded slightly before turning around and walking to the other end of the dining hall. She felt terrible. These friends of hers weren't exactly the nicest of all people, but maybe she was wrong. Maybe they knew something about the boy and that was what kept them from letting him sit at their table. She had to trust her friends and do what they did, they were her friends after all. But as she kept eating her pizza and watching the blue haired boy walk away, she couldn't shake off the feeling that something was wrong and she needed to change it, fast.

* * *

This was most certainly _not _computer camp. Maybe he was sent to the wrong place? Maybe his parents had accidentally signed him up for this camp thinking it was computer camp. Or maybe this was all some sort of joke the two of them were playing on him. He couldn't be certain, but he did know one thing; he was not happy to be here.

For one thing, he didn't socialize with people very well. He was good at many things. Physics, astronomy, mathematics, reading; those were the things he was good at. Actually, now that he thought about it, there were not many things existing that he was not good at. Camping, for example, was not a strong suit of his. Sports was not one either. And talking to people was one of the things he was worst at, which was why he spent a lot of time studying and being on his laptop; those were simply the things he was good at.

This is why he flinched when he heard someone talk to him.

"Hi Koushiro," a voice said sounding very depressed, "You won't make fun of me if I sit here, will you?"

He looked up and spotted Joe, his bunk mate for the week. "Why would I make fun of you?" he asked, looking up from his laptop.

Joe went to sit down saying, "Oh no reason."

He may not be good at socializing with people, but he could tell that Joe was not happy. In fact, the blue haired kid looked very depressed. He concluded that Joe must have been made fun of not too long ago due to Joe's question and the blush that was slowly fading from Joe's cheeks.

"Did something happen?" he asked Joe.

Joe sighed, "I went to go sit at a table but the people at the table started laughing at me and told me to go sit somewhere else."

"Well you can sit here as long as you would like," he said, trying his best to smile at Joe and make him feel welcome. He knew what it was like to be made fun of, so he tried his best to comfort Joe. It must have worked because Joe smiled back saying 'Thanks.'

The rest of the day went by surprisingly fast. He and Joe had talked the rest of the time they were eating their food. This surprised him, but Joe was a very easy person to talk to. He never had a friend before, and right now Joe was the closest thing he had to one. Guessing by what Joe was telling him of his life, Joe didn't have many friends, if any, as well. He would have gladly went back to his laptop, but there was something about actually talking to someone else that made him want to keep doing it. He made a mental note to try talking more to people in the back of his mind.

They now were walking to their cabin together. It was already starting to get late when they had entered the dining hall, so he was not surprised that the sun was now setting. After about five minutes they finally arrived back at their cabin and entered.

The cabin was empty when they entered, so he and Joe both decided it would be a good time to take a shower and start relaxing for the night before their other two roommates arrived. Joe went into the shower first and then he followed when he was finished.

As he walked out of the bathroom, changed into his clothes for bed, the front door opened and the boy with the wild brown hair entered.

"Hey there!" the boy said happily.

"Hello," he said less enthusiastically than the other boy.

The boy continued, "I'm Taichi by the way, and you are…"

"Koushiro," he filled in.

Taichi nodded before walking towards his bunk and jumping onto his bed. Taichi looked over and saw Joe who was already laying down on his bed as well.

"And what's your name?" Taichi asked.

"Oh, my name's Joe," Joe said, sitting up pushing his glasses on.

He took a seat on his bed as they continued to talk. He wanted to join in on the conversation, but he decided against it. He figured he had talked enough for one day so he went back to his laptop.

He lost track of time, but some time later he heard the cabin door open and close. He looked up to see Yamato walk in. Taichi, who was sitting up now talking to Joe, immediately glared at Yamato.

"I'm going to bed," he announced.

He continued to watch as Yamato stared Taichi down as the goggle-head jumped back onto his bed and put his face in his pillow. Yamato shook his head as he went to grab a change of clothes and head to the bathroom. 'At least they're not fighting,' he thought to himself.

He looked at the time on his laptop and seeing that it was getting late decided he should go to sleep as well. He turned off his computer and set it down on the floor- he had the bottom bunk. As he lay his head on his pillow and pulled his sheets up to his chin, Joe's head popped out and he smiled at him.

"Goodnight Koushiro," he said with a smile.

"Goodnight," he replied back.

There was at least one good thing that had come from today; he had made a friend


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own digimon!

Ok, this chapter is shorter than the last one (not that _that _was too hard to do) and there's a little more action to this chapter than the others. A couple of things I want to discuss: I have noticed I have strayed away from the original series in this story. Sora's fight with her mother, for example, is different in the original series and Hikari's whole sickness thing is kind of different too. I apologize because at the time I had not watched the series in a while but now I am watching it through again so I'm going to try and change some things as I go along. The things I have written now, though, are going to stay as is. I will go through once I have posted all chapters to spell check and edit this story, but until then please pardon any spelling/name errors or anything else of the sort. Also, I promise you guys there is going to be more and more action/excitement as the story progresses (and as _LILFOC _mentioned in his review, remember that these are little kids so the problems they face are going to seem petty and insignificant because they are just children). But I have some surprises in store for you guys towards the end...

Anyways, I am officially out of the introductory phase of the story. All the characters have been introduced along with each of their own problems that they are facing. Now is where the fun starts happening. Thank you for all the reviews and please continue to review! I promise you I read every one and they mean a lot! Next update should be fairly soon...

* * *

Chapter 4:

She slowly opened her eyes as she woke up from her dream. Coming back to her senses, she rubbed her eyes thinking back on her dream. She frowned as she did so because it wasn't exactly a happy one. She tried shaking her head to get the dream- actually memory- out of her head, but she stopped when she started feeling light headed. Then she had to cough and she realized she was still sick.

She got out of her bed holding onto the bed post for support. Her vision darkened and she couldn't see anything, but after a couple of seconds she could see again. Letting go of her tight grip on the bedpost, she took a few steps and when she finally felt confident that she wasn't about to fall over she walked over to her dresser.

She opened one of the drawers and pulled out some clothes to change into from her pajamas. As she changed, she found her thoughts thinking back to that day in the park.

_"Hikari, I'm home!" she heard her brother call out. She was sitting on the couch watching television. Her parents had left for work and she had stayed home from school because she was sick. She felt a little bit better than when she first woke up, but not much. It felt like she didn't have any energy to do anything and the few times she stood up she felt very nauseas._

_She weakly replied, "Hi Taichi," coughing a little bit._

_Taichi walked into the family room of the apartment and she could finally see her brother. "You look a lot better," he said, "Do you feel any better?"_

_She simply nodded and he continued, "Good, cause I want to go play soccer. Do you want to come?"_

_She really wanted to say no, not only because she didn't want to but also because she didn't think she could with the way she was feeling. But what kind of big sister would she have been if she told Taichi 'No.' The smile on his face clearly showed that he wanted her to go with him. She also knew well enough that if she said no that Taichi would not go play like he wanted to; he'd stay home with her and worry about her trying to make sure she was alright. She didn't want that and she wanted Taichi to be happy; so she said, "Sure."_

_"Great," Taichi said, his smile widening, "Let's go."_

_She slowly got up to her feet and walked over to put her shoes on. She could already tell this was a bad idea, but Taichi looked so happy and that's what really mattered. It didn't matter how she felt as long as Taichi was happy._

_They walked out of the apartment, Taichi carrying his soccer ball, and they eventually arrived at the park. Their apartment was only a couple of blocks away from the park so it didn't take very long to arrive there. She looked around and saw a couple of other kids playing as well. She couldn't blame them; it was a very nice day outside. Taichi stopped walking at an empty patch of grass and dropped the soccer ball. _

_"Now Hikari you go over there by the teeter-totters and I'll kick the ball to you alright?" Taichi told her pointing towards the teeter-totters he was talking about._

_"Ok," she said._

_She walked over to where Taichi was talking about and turned around to face him. He was doing some special tricks with the soccer ball. Taichi called it juggling, but she didn't know why. He was bouncing the ball randomly from his foot to his head to his knee and that was not juggling at all. _

_When he saw that she was ready he told her, "Ok, here it comes Hikari!"_

_The ball fell to the ground and Taichi stopped it with his foot. He drew his right leg backwards before kicking the ball sending it flying towards her. She crouched down as the ball rolled towards her and used her hands to stop the ball._

_"Hikari!" Taichi called out, "You can't use your hands in soccer."_

_"Sorry Taichi," she said getting upset at herself for doing something wrong. As she stood back up she dropped the ball to the ground. Suddenly she felt ten times worse. Her head was throbbing, her stomach hurt, and she felt like she was going to collapse. She vaguely heard Taichi's voice call out as her vision became blurry._

_"Now do it just like I did Hikari," Taichi called out with a smile. _

_She pulled her leg back a little ways and then kicked the ball. The soccer ball veered to the left going nowhere near Taichi. She saw her brother frown and say, "That's not how you do it Hikari!"_

_Taichi turned to go get the ball, but then everything became black and the last thing she remembered was falling to the ground._

She was little back then, but she still felt the same way sometimes; it mattered more that Taichi was happy than it did to make sure she was ok. Taichi was her older brother and although he could be annoying sometimes he meant a lot to her. Whenever she was crying and having a bad time Taichi was there to talk with her. When she was sick in the hospital, Taichi was always there making sure she was ok. They did everything together, but now he wasn't there anymore. She had seen how upset Taichi was about going to camp and he said the day before he left that he would've liked it if she had went with him. Their parents refused, but she couldn't help but blame herself for how Taichi was feeling when he left. If she wasn't sick all the time then he wouldn't always be worried about her. Then she would've gone to camp with him and they could've had fun together and they all would be happy. But she had to stay home sick, and this only made her feel worse.

This was why she had formed her plan. She was going to act like she was feeling better even if she didn't so she could go to camp and be with Taichi. Her mother, before she and her father had left to go visit their grandparents- she stayed home because she was sick- had told her that if she got better then she would be allowed to go to camp. She wasn't feeling better though, so she had to trick her parents into thinking she was ok.

How was she going to do this, though? She knew her brother had told her that he would sometimes take the "temperature" device and place it under hot water. It would say that he had a fever and he would act being sick from there. He said he did it to be with Hikari, but she knew that it was mostly because he liked the cartoons that were on in the morning. Maybe there was a way she could reverse that so she could hide her fever.

As for her cough, however, that was going to be harder to deal with. She was feeling a little better today so maybe the cough would start going away on its own? That would be very nice, though it would be better if she just got done with being sick altogether. For some reason she got sick a lot, and when she did it was serious. This was the second time she had caught pneumonia and it also was the second time she had gone to the hospital. She overheard the doctors one time telling her parents that she had a weak immune system, but she didn't know what that was or what it meant. 'Oh well,' she thought.

Putting on her best face despite how she felt, she exited her room now fully changed. Her mother was already awake and fixing breakfast. She hoped her mother wasn't making those organic pancakes again; she didn't eat any because she was sick but they smelled terrible and it made the whole apartment stink.

As she entered the kitchen, she did not smell organic pancakes; she smelled eggs and bacon. She sighed; that was her favorite breakfast but she didn't feel like eating right now.

"Good morning dear," her mother said after turning around and seeing her, "How do you feel?"

She hated lying, but she had already decided she was going to follow her plan no matter what; she needed to get to camp.

"I feel a lot better mom! Can I go to camp now?" she asked as happily as she could. She nervously watched her mother look her over. She heard in school that mother's knew everything, even when someone lied to them. They had called it a mother's instinct and she had to say that right now she could see it for herself.

Her mother looked at her with a perplexed look, as if she were a riddle and was concentrating on figuring out the answer. She then said, "Are you sure dear? You don't look much better…"

"I am mom!" she insisted, "Honestly I am."

She was about to cough but then tried to cover it up as a yawn. She ended up making a weird sound at which her mother's expression deepened, but she smiled acting as if nothing was wrong.

"Well, maybe you're feeling a little bit better," her mother concluded, "But I still want to take your temperature."

"Okay," she said. She watched as her mother went around to cooking dinner again. Now that she wasn't about to get caught, she turned the kitchen sink on so that cold water came out. She put the thermometer under the faucet for about five seconds before turning the water off and sticking it back in her mouth. She watched her mother continue to cook as she waited for the machine to start beeping. Once it did, she pulled it out of her mouth and looked at the number. It read 35.9 degrees Celsius. She wasn't sure if that was good or not, but she figured it couldn't be that bad because it was less than what it was before- yesterday it had been 38.2.

Her mother turned around to take the thermometer from her still holding the spatula she was using to flip the eggs in. She looked at it and her jaw dropped.

"Hikari," she exclaimed, "that is very low!"

Her mother raised her hand to her forehead. She pouted a little bit and said, "You don't feel cold. Actually, you still feel fairly warm. Maybe the machine is busted…"

"No," she said quickly, "I'm just getting better mom!"

"I don't know Hikari," her mother said.

"I take it that means I can't go to camp?" she asked a little downcast.

Her mother nodded. "I just want to make sure you're all better Hikari. We know what happened the last time you went out while you were sick…"

She sighed. This faking being better thing was going to be a lot harder than what she thought. She wished she would just get better and be done with being sick, but nothing was ever that easy.

Camp sucked. Takeru was nowhere to be seen. He was eating all by himself. And he was rooming with the person in his grade that he hated the most. This was not what he had expected out of camp, but he wasn't necessarily surprised that things hadn't worked out. Everything in his life seemed to work out that way. As a little kid he always saw his family as being very close and staying that way for forever; that hadn't worked out at all. Then when the divorce happened and he chose to live with his father, he had expected the two of them to become really close. The truth was, though, that he and his father had grown farther apart if anything. His dad was a workaholic. He left early in the morning to go to work, and he came back home from work at a very late hour. Most of the time when he got home he went straight to bed telling him that it had been a 'rough day at the station.' They rarely got to spend any time together. No, his life was not very good, and he wasn't shocked that this week was turning out to be nothing different.

He looked around the dining hall looking for his brother. There were many kids lined up to get their breakfast, but he noticed that most of the kids were around his age. Not only didn't he see Takeru anywhere, but he didn't see any little kids anywhere. Maybe this was what the lady at the check-in desk was referring to when she said they were doing things by age group.

As he looked around, two people caught his eye. He rolled his eyes as he saw who one of the kids was. It was Taichi, and he was glaring at him from halfway across the dining hall. There also was a girl sitting next to him. He knew the girl; she had auburn hair and wore a blue helmet on her head. Her name was Sora and she was in his grade, but he didn't know why she was sitting next to Taichi. Taichi wasn't the one who hung around a lot of kids his age- 'just like me' he thought to himself- so it caught him off guard when he was actually sitting next to someone. Then he thought of the possibility that maybe the two had _something_ going on. He hoped not because, although he hated to admit it, he had a little crush on the girl soccer player.

"Umm, Yamato?" a voice said.

"Earth to Yamato!" a second voice spoke up.

He pulled his eyes away from Taichi and Sora and looked up. Standing at the table was Joe and Koushiro, his other two cabin mates.

"Oh, hey guys. Sorry about that," he mumbled.

"Do you mind if we sit here?" Joe asked pointing to the seats next to him.

He nodded and the blue head and the red head set their trays down and took a seat next to him. He noticed a group of girls from a different table point in his direction and start laughing. He turned to Koushiro and Joe wondering if they saw the same thing and realized they had when he saw Koushiro nervously looking down at his food while Joe was blushing. He looked back towards the table of laughing girls and saw that one of them was not laughing at all and instead looked guilty as if she had done something wrong. This girl was wearing an outrageous pink cowboy hat along with a pink tee-shirt. He took his attention away from the table and asked Joe, "Do you know what that is all about?"

Joe slowly nodded before he went into explaining what had happened the previous day at dinner. He felt sorry for Joe. He knew that Kumiko and Harumi were rude, but they had never done anything to him. In fact, no one really messed with him. He thought maybe it was because he intimidated or scared people. He never really talked to anyone and people did their best to avoid him, so he didn't really care… ok, he wished people would talk to him more and he wished he had friends, but he wasn't about to start going out and talking to everybody in the school. But to be made fun of like Joe had, though, couldn't have been.

"Don't worry about them Joe, they're just dumb girls!" he said, trying to make Joe feel better.

Joe nodded and continued to eat his food. He went back to his food, but then an amplified voice rang through the dining hall. He turned and saw one of the camp counselors in the middle of the dining hall using a megaphone.

"Attention all campers, today we will be hiking around the woods. Finish your breakfasts, go back to your cabins to get ready, and meet me outside the dining hall in fifteen minutes."

A hiking day, huh? That didn't sound too bad, and maybe he'd find Takeru because the counselor had said all campers.

"Did he say hiking?" Koushiro said, sounding disgusted.

Joe looked like he was about to have a panic attack, "I can't go hiking! What if we're exposed to something I'm allergic to?!"

He just laughed a little bit, "Come on guys, it'll be fun."

They didn't look like they believed him, and with the way he sounded not even he believed himself.

They finished their breakfasts and now were walking back to the cabin. Arriving at the cabin, Yamato pulled open the door only to be face to face with Taichi. He started shaking as anger filled him up, but Taichi simply smirked as the goggle-head pushed him to the side and ran down the stairs back towards the dining hall.

"I hate that kid," he mumbled under his breath.

"What is wrong with you two? Do you have some sort of history or something?" Joe asked.

"You could call it that," he said through gritted teeth.

"You can…" Joe started, but he cut the blue head off.

"I don't want to talk about it Joe!" he said loudly.

"All-righty then," Joe said softly.

He took a deep breath as he started feeling bad. Joe didn't do anything to him. In fact, Joe was actually trying to help him, but he had practically bitten off Joe's head for no reason. He had become a lot like that over the past few years. The simplest things made him furious, and that was part of the reason why he and Taichi had first fought and started hating each other.

They entered the cabin and he started gathering what he thought he would need for the hike. As he did so, he sighed.

"Listen Joe," he started, "I'm sorry for yelling at you back then."

"It's ok Yamato," Joe said, smiling a little.

He nodded and went back to what he was doing; Joe and Koushiro were the closest things he has had to friends and he didn't want them to start ignoring him like everyone else did.

After about ten minutes they were standing back outside the dining hall along with all of the other campers waiting to go on the hike. He looked around trying to spot his little brother, but, as before, all the little kids, including Takeru, were nowhere to be seen. As he continued looking around he heard the camp counselor start talking again through the megaphone.

"Good morning campers! As I'm sure you have noticed, the second through fourth graders will not be joining us today."

There were a couple of cheers as the counselor mentioned this.

"Yes, yes, now, like I said before, we are going hiking. We'll be hiking these neighboring woods and will be gone for a couple of hours. While we are hiking, stay with the group! We don't want any of you to get lost in these woods so the bears can get you."

At this a couple of people, mostly girls, gasped.

"So always stay with the group! And one more thing, watch out for poison ivy. Now, let's go!"

The counselor turned off his megaphone and started heading off towards the edge of camp. He, Koushiro, and Joe all looked at each other.

"Did he just say… bears? And… poison ivy?" Joe said, sounding scared to death.

"Yes Joe, but we will be fine," he said rolling his eyes.

"He is right! I have learned that bears do not attack big groups such as the one we will be travelling in. As long as we stay together we will be fine!" Koushiro added.

"But what about the poison ivy, huh? I'm probably going to be covered in hives by the time we get back…"

"Highly improbable! Poison ivy is rare in these parts and even if you would come into contact with it there's a high percentage you may not even be allergic to it," Koushiro said matter-of-factly.

"You heard the genius! Now, let's go before we fall behind," he said noticing the others were already starting to get ahead of them. The two nodded and they ran to catch up.

He had to admit that he was surprised. He didn't consider himself much of a nature person but even he couldn't refuse the beauty that was in these woods. The trees stood over fifty feet tall towering over them like huge skyscrapers. The sun was shining high above the sky, but the tree's thick leaves prevented some of the sunlight from shining through to where they were on the ground. There were a couple of flowering plants here and there that were any color from blue, to red, to pink, to yellow. He spotted a cave a ways off the trail. They even had come across a small stream that wound its way through the forest. This place was so cool.

He wished Takeru was here. When their parents were fighting those many years ago, Takeru would sometimes overhear the two arguing and start crying. He, not being able to sleep with his parents' shouts and his little brother's crying, used to take Takeru out onto their apartment's balcony. There he would stare out looking at Highton View Terrace. The city would practically glow with all the lights filling the night from all of the buildings. Takeru also liked to look up at all the stars, even if some of them were actually helicopters flying by. Takeru loved being outside, and he knew his little brother would love it here as well. Thinking of Takeru made him start to think back when they were a real family, so he shook his head to try to clear his thoughts.

When he did, he saw a big river in front of him. It was wide enough to where they had to step onto a couple of rocks to get across. He, Koushiro, and Joe were towards the back of the group so most of the others were already on the other side. He watched as first Koushiro and then Joe stepped onto the first rock as they walked across the river. He stepped onto the first rock no problem. As he went to step on the second one, though, something pushed him from behind and he lost his footing. He fell into the river with a splash and he shivered as he pushed himself up trying to get out of the cold water. When he turned around he saw Taichi bent over because he was laughing so hard. Sora was looking at him with a concerned, almost regretful, expression on her face. Some turned to look at him and they all started laughing as well. As the laughter grew louder, more and more of the campers stopped to see what everyone was looking at. When they all saw him drenched and shivering because of the cold water, they joined in on the laughter.

"Hey Yamato," Taichi said in-between laughs, "It's a good thing your brother wasn't here! You're always holding his hand so he would've fallen in the river with you!"

That was too far! He ran towards Taichi pushing him out of the way as he ran past fellow campers who were pointing and laughing at him. He didn't know where he was going, but it didn't matter; he needed to get away from there, away from Taichi, before he did anything stupid that would get him in trouble.

He ran as far as he could until he couldn't anymore. He didn't care he was away from the group. He didn't care if a bear attacked him or he caught poison ivy. No one cared about him. Not his parents, not his friends, no one. 'Why does this week have to suck so much,' he thought to himself as tears started falling from his eyes.

Hiking was not as bad as he had thought it was going to be. Well, except for Yamato running away. He had got to see many great things that he didn't even know were out there. Whoever knew the trees could be so comforting? Despite how much he hated being outside, even he had to admit it was a nice change of pace for him.

But despite how much he had enjoyed the hike, he couldn't stop worrying about Yamato.

"He should be back by now," he said to Koushiro, "You don't think a bear got him do you?"

"The probability of that is little to none. Bears don't tend to live in this area; they stay more north. Besides, Yamato is capable enough of watching out for himself," Koushiro assured him.

"I guess you're right," but he wasn't convinced. What could Yamato be doing out in the woods? Why hasn't he come back yet? And why did he and Taichi hate each other so much? There were so many unanswered questions, but all he could do now is trust that Yamato would be all right.

After they finished their lunch, he and Koushiro went back outside the dining hall along with all of the others. They had been informed that they were going to be playing capture the flag and were going to be told the rules and split into teams outside of the dining hall.

A different counselor than the one who took them on the hike started speaking over the megaphone as she explained the rules. Once she had finished she then proceeded to splitting them up into teams. He had gotten lucky because Koushiro was on his team. As he looked around at the rest of his team he noticed the girl with the pink cowboy hat was on his team and he sighed a sigh of annoyance. 'I only hope she doesn't make any more fun of me,' he thought to himself.

It wasn't much longer after that when the two of them were walking with their team away from the other team to go hide their flag. They hadn't voted, but a couple of kids had elected themselves as leader and decided to be in charge of where they were going to hide the flag. Ultimately, he did not care and by the look on Koushiro's face he could tell Koushiro didn't care either.

They hid their flag and it didn't take long before the game began. Campers were running frantically trying to find the enemy's flag while trying not to get caught by the other team. He and Koushiro had been assigned to guard the flag, but they had ignored their orders and decided to walk around a bit to enjoy the woods some more.

"Prodigious," Koushiro exclaimed, "This is a buruberu flower! And over there is a Suitopi. And…"

He ignored the red head as he started naming every flower they came across. He didn't necessarily care about what each flower was named and what each of the flowers' names' meant, or what the scientific name of the flower was. So he tuned out his friends as he looked about the woods. He could see why Yamato wouldn't come back. Clearly there were some things on the blonde's mind, and he couldn't think of anyplace better to spend time thinking than in these woods.

"Hey!" he heard a high-pitched voice call out from behind him. He turned around and spotted the girl with the crazy pink cowboy hat running towards them. She was waving her hand frantically and had a big smile on her face.

"Come on Koushiro, let's get out of here," he said.

Koushiro, not hearing anything that was going on because of his ranting on the flowers, said, "Huh?"

"There you are," the girl said and he could tell she was close now.

He sighed, saying, "Come here to make fun of me I suppose?"

"What is…?" Koushiro started, "Ohh…" he said as he spotted the girl in pink running up to them.

"No, please, just hear me out!" the girl said as he stopped allowing her to catch up with them. At least she wasn't with those other girls.

"This should be good," he said, rolling his eyes as the girl finally caught up with them and stopped to catch her breath. Once she had recovered, she said,

"Wow, I really shouldn't run that much! These shoes are not meant for running and I might get blisters!"

"Will you please tell me why you are here?" he said trying not to get angry. In all fairness, she hadn't necessarily laughed at him, but she sure hadn't stuck up for him either.

"I wanted to apologize for the other day! I'm so sorry they started laughing at you. I felt so bad after you walked away, could you please forgive me?" the girl said looking into his eyes.

He blushed as she did so. He didn't know why, but something about this girl made him feel very… different on the inside.

"I… Yes, I forgive you… uh," he said, but stopped himself because he didn't know the girl's name.

"Mimi," Mimi supplied for him, smiling.

He nodded, "I forgive you Mimi."

"Great! Thanks, uh," Mimi said stopping herself this time.

"Joe," he said smiling.

"Thanks Joe," she said happily.

"Ah hem!" he heard a voice say from beside him. Oh, that's right, they weren't alone right now.

"Oh, sorry, this guy here is Koushiro!" he said indicating the short red-head standing next to him.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Mimi," Koushiro said reaching out his hand.

Mimi grabbed the hand and shook it.

"So what are you two doing way out here? You guys aren't anywhere close to the other team's flag," Mimi said.

"Well, we aren't really participating in the game," he told her.

She nodded, "I don't like this game much either. Where's your other friend, the blonde one?"

"You must mean Yamato!" Koushiro said.

Joe added, "He's not back yet."

"What do you mean he's not back yet?" Mimi asked.

"Well," Joe started, "When Taichi pushed him into the river he sort of just ran away. We haven't seen him since."

"Oh," Mimi said, "So are you guys looking for him?"

"What?" he asked.

"I said are you guys looking for him?" she restated.

"Umm, no…" he started, but was cut off by Mimi.

"Well then let's go find him! He has to be somewhere around here! Besides, it'll be fun!"

When neither he nor Koushiro started arguing with her, she suddenly started walking in a random direction. He and Koushiro looked at each other sharing a mental conversation, but then they agreed that they should follow Mimi and so they set off after her.

It seemed as if they had been walking for ages. Mimi complained about everything. "It's so hot!", "My feet hurt!", and "I'm so thirsty!" were some of the most used complaints. Even Koushiro was tired enough to where he wasn't ranting about every flower and tree that he saw. And he would be lying to say if he wasn't tired too.

"Mimi watch out," he said as he watched the girl about to run into a tree branch. He quickly ran up and used his hand to pull it back.

"Oh, I didn't even see that there. Thanks Joe," Mimi said.

He nodded and continued to hold the branch as Mimi and Koushiro walked by. While he was doing so he noticed his shoes were untied so he let go of the branch and quickly crouched to tie the shoelaces. As he did so he felt his shoulder rubbing against some leaves near the bottom of the tree- whose branch Mimi had nearly ran into- but he ignored it and ran to catch up with the others.

The sun, which was straight up in the school once they had started playing capture the flag, was now close to setting. He was about to tell the others they should give up and head back to camp. Besides, it was likely that Yamato had gone back to camp by now anyways. As he was about to speak up, though, Koushiro said, "Do you hear that?"

Both he and Mimi stopped and looked at the red-head. "What do you mean?" Mimi asked.

"Listen," he ordered. They stayed silent trying to hear what Koushiro was talking about. At first he thought the heat was getting to Koushiro and slowly driving them all crazy- maybe they were already starting to go crazy- but then he heard it as well.

"It's coming from over here!" Koushiro said as he ran off in the direction of the noise. He looked at Mimi who just shrugged before they started running after him as well. Koushiro finally stopped and pointed to the base of one of the trees grinning. When he and Mimi caught up, he looked to where Koushiro was pointing and started smiling as well. Sitting with his back against the base of the tree was a blonde boy playing a harmonica.

"Yamato!" he called out.

The music from the harmonica stopped as Yamato pulled the instrument from his lips and looked up at them. He tilted his head to the side like a dog would when it was confused and asked, "Joe? Koushiro? What are you guys doing here?"

"We came to find you, and we succeeded!" Koushiro said happily.

"Oh thank goodness we found you. I was about ready to give up," he said smiling at the blonde. Yamato still looked up at them in confusion as if wondering why they were here; ignoring the fact that he had ran away from camp and didn't come back.

Yamato locked eyes with Mimi and asked, "What is she doing here? Isn't she the one who made fun of you Joe?" Yamato stood up quickly and balled his fists. Ok, maybe Yamato was a bit more hot headed than he originally thought.

"No, Yamato, stop. She is one of the girls but she sincerely apologized to me. Her name's Mimi," he said, stopping to let Mimi introduce herself.

"It's nice to meet you," she said cutely.

Yamato looked at him as if asking 'Are you sure about this?' to which he simply nodded. Yamato nodded as well reaching his hands towards Mimi.

"Nice to meet you too. I'm Yamato by the way," he said as Mimi grabbed his hand and they shook hands.

He relaxed a little; at least now everything was looking good. As they stood there talking, they heard the dinner bell ring from camp. He was surprised to hear that it wasn't that far away from them.

"Thank goodness, I'm starving!" Mimi said as she started to walk towards the direction the bell came from.

"I was beginning to worry we wouldn't find our way back to camp," Koushiro added as he also followed Mimi towards the sound of the bell. Instead of following the two, he turned to Yamato and asked the blonde, "Are you ready to go back?"

Yamato hesitated, but then said, "Yeah, let's go before we lose them."

"Right!" he said. He was glad Yamato had said yes because, honestly, he felt like he was starving. His legs hurt from all the hiking they had done today. And he was just plain tired. At least now they were going to be headed back to camp and be able to get some food and relax for the night. He smiled as he walked back with Yamato.


	5. Chapter 5

Ok, so here's Chapter 5. Pretty long chapter, but it concludes the second day of the week in this story. A couple of parts in here were fun to write like the basketball part and the little Taiora mention. You get to see what caused the Taichi/Yamato hatred from Yamato's perspective! Also, I'm not intentionally being cruel to Takeru though it may seem like it... Oh well; it is what it is. Almost half-way done with this story and now is where the fun starts to begin! Please keep reading, reviewing, critiquing, favoriting, following, etc; it is much appreciated and really helps me as a writer! I hope you like this chapter (and let me know what you think in a review!)

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Chapter 5:

He would be lying if he said he was happy right now. It's not that he didn't want to be happy because he really did, but things just weren't going his way. When his mom had told him he was going to spend the whole week with his big brother, Yamato, he was excited! He never got to see his brother so he really wanted to go to camp. But by the looks of it he wasn't going to be spending much time with Yamato. He wasn't there when they were eating breakfast, and one of the people in charge had said today was going to be just the second through fourth graders.

Not seeing his brother wasn't the only thing that made him upset though. Because they had assigned cabins based on age, he had been put into a cabin where he didn't know any of the people in it. All of the kids were his age, but some of them he had never seen before, not even in school. And not all of them were very nice.

When he had first entered the cabin the previous night, there was only one other boy sitting in the cabin. This boy was a blonde that looked his age. He had blue eyes just like him and was about the same height as far as he could tell. This kid seemed nice enough so when he first entered the cabin he smiled and said, "Hi."

The other kid said "Hi," back, but just as they started talking and he was moving over to claim one of the bunks for himself the cabin door flung open. He turned to see who had entered the cabin, and he had to admit he was scared, and rightly so. The kid who had entered was a fourth grader, but he was huge. He thought for sure that the kid must have been held back or something! He just was too huge; the boy had to be two or three times his own height and the same width-wise as well.

The kid, actually bully was more like it, had introduced himself as Haro. Haro had not tried to make a good impression; in fact, he took no time at all to get right to the bullying. He was standing by an empty bunk, but Haro had walked over and pushed him out of the way. He had fallen to the floor, but luckily he had his bag on his back so it was a soft landing. Haro had then claimed the only empty bunk- there were two bunk beds meaning the cabin was meant for four people- as his. He had then got up and walked over to the bunk the other blonde boy was on and laid his bag on the bed on top. Another boy had entered as well, but Haro did not seem to care about that kid or the other blonde boy. For some reason Haro had something against him and felt the need to pick on him. Luckily for him, the dinner bell rang shortly after and he had rushed off to the dining hall.

That was when he had met Mimi again, but that hadn't gone so well. He did eat dinner with Yamato, though, so that was good. After that, though, the rest of the night was pretty silent. They all were tired and had gone to bed fairly soon after dinner.

Now he had already eaten breakfast- not finding Yamato which made him upset- but he had been able to stay away from Haro so far. The only bad thing, though, was that by avoiding Haro he had to avoid just about everyone else as well. There weren't many second through fourth graders, so to avoid Haro he couldn't be with the friends that he usually talked to.

He followed the group of kids as they walked into one of the buildings on the campground. While they were eating one of the people in charge had announced that today they were going to be making tee-shirts. He didn't think this was going to be much fun. He would much rather be with Yamato, but there was no way he could change that.

They walked inside the building and he saw a bunch of tables. On the tables were bottles of paint consisting of all kinds of colors. There also were plain, white tee-shirts set on the table. He walked over to one of the tables and waited for someone to tell him what to do next.

"Oh hey, if it isn't the little pip squeak. I think I'm going to take this table as well!" a voice said from behind him. He knew that voice, and his fears were confirmed when he looked up and saw Haro standing next to him. 'Just great,' he thought to himself, 'I wonder how Haro is going to bully me this time.'

"Now everyone grab a tee-shirt and start designing!" the girl counselor called out to all of them. He went to grab a shirt, but Haro hit his hand to the side.

"That one's mine blondie," Haro shouted at him. He waited for Haro to take a tee-shirt before he grabbed his. At first everything was going fine. He was making a design on his tee-shirt that was well known to him. It was what his mother had called the symbol for hope.

His mother worked for one of the newspapers in Odaiba. She had told him that a long time ago she had to explore a cave near the Odaiba area where some ancient runes were found. His mother had said it was one of her favorite articles to ever write because it showed an ancient form of writing from centuries ago. In the ruins were some sort of images which were interpreted by someone. She had fallen in love with the images and had posted them all over her house. Each image represented a certain characteristic including courage, friendship, love, reliability, light, sincerity, knowledge, kindness, and many others. When she had shown them to him and explained what they all had meant, one of the images he had a sudden liking for. Her mother had said it meant hope. It basically was a sun with a ray of light coming from it. He didn't know why, but the image had always appealed to him.

He just about had his tee-shirt made just the way he wanted. The image was all yellow and he was going to make the rest of the tee-shirt green, but as he was finishing up the symbol of hope he heard a voice that made him cringe.

"What is _that?" _Haro asked as he pointed and laughed at his tee-shirt.

He pouted, "It's not funny Haro!"

"You're right blondie," Haro continued, "It's hilarious! I could help you make it better though. You want to know how?"

"No I really don't," he told Haro, but he knew it wasn't going to help his case at all.

"All you gotta do is add a little of _this,"_ Haro said as he dumped black dye onto the tee-shirt, "And _this, _and _this,_ and don't forget a little bit of _this_."

By the time he had finished, Haro had dumped every color of dye onto his tee-shirt. What was going to be a very nice tee-shirt was now ruined thanks to Haro. It wasn't a big deal, but he was putting a lot of work into his tee-shirt. He wasn't much of an artsy person, but he was trying his best to make his tee-shirt look nice. He even thought about going home to show his parents and Yamato when he had finished it, but he couldn't show them this. This was terrible. It looked like someone had eaten every kind of food in the dining hall and then threw it all up onto this tee-shirt. This was a disaster; this wasn't something that he could show his family without getting laughed at. And to top it all off, the dye had splattered from the tee-shirt onto his own clothes and his face. It took all he had in him to not start balling on the spot as he felt his eyes starting to shake.

That was one thing he had to work on. There were many times when he was really little where he would start crying over little things. When Yamato would cancel one of his visits or when his mother would yell at him he used to cry insanely. His mother would then start yelling at him and calling him things like "annoying little brat" and "crybaby." He noticed his mother hadn't really been happy during that time- which he now realized was probably because of Yamato and his father not being there- but those names still hurt him a lot. Ever since those times he had tried his best to not cry. From what he could tell, people either laughed at or got mad at little kids who cried. No, he couldn't cry now and he couldn't cry ever because he didn't want to be a crybaby, but it sure was hard not to.

"Ha! Now that's what I call a tee-shirt," Haro said grinning widely.

The rest of the morning went by slowly for him. Without a tee-shirt to work on, he just stood there by his table doing nothing. He sometimes would watch Haro go to other tables and do the same to their tee-shirts that Haro had done to his. He wished he could stand up to Haro, but he was so small. And if he tattled on Haro and he found out, then Haro would not be ok with that and probably beat him up. There was nothing he could do, and it angered him.

After what seemed like forever, the lunch bell finally rang. He ate his lunch in peace and by himself. While he was eating he noticed the other blonde boy from his cabin looking over at him and he thought about going over and talking to the kid, but if Haro had spotted the two of them he was afraid Haro would not only make fun of him more but also make fun of the other kid as well. He didn't want to bring that upon the other kid, so he stayed where he was at.

While he was eating, the older kids came into the dining hall. They all looked tired and sweaty and some of them looked sunburnt. He eagerly looked for his brother Yamato, but as he watched all of the older kids go through the line he did not see Yamato anywhere. He spotted Mimi and debated going to sit with her, but then he remembered she had told him to go away the previous day. Maybe he really was going to be alone all week.

After a half an hour, he walked outside with the rest of the campers his age. When they all were outside, a counselor told them they had the rest of the afternoon to do whatever they wanted. The counselor listed off a bunch of activities they could do, but he had stopped listening to her as soon as she said 'basketball.'

Basketball was so much fun! He was pretty good at it, and it was a lot of fun. It was definitely better than soccer- which a lot of kids his age were really getting into. For him, basketball was so much fun and it just came naturally to him. He waited for the counselor to dismiss them before running off to the basketball courts completely forgetting what a bad week he was having so far.

It was a short run to the basketball courts. They had two basketball courts side-by-side on a big concrete square. The baskets looked like they were many years old, but he didn't care. This was basketball!

He ran to get a basketball sitting next to the base of one of the hoops. He dribbled away from the basket a little ways before turning around to face the basket. He looked just about straight up to see the net. Bracing himself, he picked the ball up, placed his hands on the ball where he wanted them, pushed up with his arms, and then jumped. He landed on the ground watching the basketball fly through the air. He smiled as the ball went straight through the net making a _swish _sound.

"Nice shot blondie," an all-too familiar voice said, "Too bad anything with the slightest hint of skill can make that shot."

He reluctantly looked up and saw none other than Haro standing underneath the rim. Haro grabbed the ball before it hit the concrete and looked up at him smiling that evil-looking smirk of his.

"How about we play a little one-on-one and see who makes the shots then?" Haro asked, but it didn't sound like he was asking. His somewhat happy mood completely fell. Haro was huge, and although he was good at basketball, he was too small to beat someone like Haro in a game of one-on-one.

He was about to speak up his disagreement, but Haro was already making his way to the top of the three-point arc.

"I get ball first," Haro said. He looked around and spotted a couple of other kids sitting around watching the two of them. He sighed; this wasn't going to be good.

"Alright Haro," he said quietly.

Haro passed him the ball and said, "Check." He caught it and passed it back. Right as he let go of the ball he got into a defensive stance like his coach had taught him. Haro dribbled to the right but he slid in front of Haro causing him to stop. Haro dribbled the other way, but Haro was not fast enough to get past him again. Not wanting to try dribbling again, Haro picked the ball up and shot it from about the free-throw line. He watched the ball fly through the air, but the ball didn't even touch the rim. It was a complete air-ball.

A couple of the kids from the side laughed and one of them passed the ball to him. That made him smile; for once Haro was the one being laughed at. He smiled as Haro made a funny face out of anger. He dribbled up to the top of the three point arc before passing Haro the ball saying "Check," as well.

Haro gave him a hard pass which he barely caught. Trying to catch Haro off guard he dribbled to his right as soon as he caught the ball. Haro cut him off, but he did a cross-over move- another thing he had learned from his coach- which caught Haro completely off guard. He dribbled around Haro making his way towards the basket. He jump-stopped in front of the hoop before shooting the ball. It soared high into the air and hit the back of the rim bouncing straight up before landing through the hoop. He could hear cheers and claps as he grabbed the ball as it fell out of the net and passed it back up to Haro smiling the whole time.

By now Haro was shaking with anger, and he worried he had gone too far with the game. Haro yelled out "Check," as he practically whipped the ball right at him. He caught the ball but his hands stung a little bit as he did so. He passed the ball back to Haro who upon catching the ball started bull rushing right at him. He froze in fear as Haro reached his arm to his back and pushed him down with a strong force and continued to dribble around him. He started falling to the ground at a high-speed and tried to catch himself with his hands before he fell, but he failed. His knees and hands scraped roughly against the concrete. He tried to stop it but failed as his head hit the concrete and he crumpled to the ground.

The pain was terrible. His knees and hands felt like they were on fire. There was a strong knobbing on his head and it felt like he had been hit in the head by a rock or something heavy. He lied there for a while, in too much pain to move, but then decided he should try to get up. As he did so, though, someone's foot landed on his back, and judging by the laughter he could tell whose foot that was.

"Not going to get up blondie? Guess that means you forfeit and I win! You hear me? I win!" Haro shouted at him. It was too much; the pain, Haro, being separated from Yamato. Tears fell from his face as he cried out. At this Haro busted up in more laughter causing him to start crying more. Why did this have to happen to him? He didn't do anything to Haro so why did he have to pick on him?

Haro kept his foot where he was until he heard a whistle come from somewhere behind him. He felt Haro's foot quickly move off his back and he slowly got up to his feet, wiping the tears away and trying to stop himself from crying any more.

"What is going on… Takeru! What happened to you? Come with me now!" a voice said. He looked up and saw one of the counselors standing in front of him. She took his hand and started pulling him away from the basketball courts. He looked back to see Haro still laughing at him and acting like he was crying. He turned back around and put his head to the ground, his knees, hands, and head still in intense pain.

* * *

She was having a great day, well, besides the whole hiking around the woods for just about the entire day. She had finally apologized to Joe and found out that he and his other two friends- Yamato and Koushiro- were pretty cool. She hadn't seen Kumiko, Harumi, or the other girls since she, Joe, and Koushiro had gone off in search for Yamato, but honestly she felt so much better not being around those girls. When she was around them she had felt like she couldn't be the person she wanted to be. It felt like they were trying to make her do what they wanted to, not what she wanted to. It was different with Joe, Koushiro, and Yamato. They were very nice to her- once she apologized- and she was able to have a good time with them. In fact, she had had more fun the short time she was with these three guys than the whole time she was with the other girls. She could be sincere around these guys. She smiled as she realized she was new here but had made so many friends so fast. It was just because she was awesome, she was sure of it.

As she ate dinner with the other three, she looked around the dining hall like she usually did. She noticed her other friends would look over at her every once and a while- Harumi and Kumiko both glaring at her. They weren't the only ones looking at them, though. A boy with crazy brown hair wearing a pair of goggles was sitting next to none other than Sora and the two of them were both looking over at them. She immediately dubbed those two as 'trouble,' because she already knew Sora was bad and anyone who would hang out with Sora couldn't be good.

Someone else caught her eye, too. He wasn't staring over at them; actually, the little boy was sitting all by himself with his head rested against the table. She could see a few locks of blonde hair hanging down the front of his face, but the rest of the little boy's hair was hidden in a green baseball cap that had a blue jewel on the front. She felt like she should know the boy, but then ignored it.

She returned back to her table and looked at Yamato. She was just about to comment on his wild blonde hair when she finally realized something. The little boy that was sitting down by himself was Takeru, and he always sat with Yamato.

"Hey Yamato!" she called out causing the blonde to look at her confusingly, "Isn't that your little brother over there?"

He kept his gaze for a second before his eyes opened wide and he said, "Takeru!" Yamato quickly got up out of his seat before looking around the dining hall. "Where is he?" he asked.

"Over there," she responded, pointing towards the little blonde. Yamato then took off at a run towards Takeru. The little boy pulled his head up off the ground still wearing a frown that looked like it belonged nowhere on the innocent child's face. When Takeru spotted Yamato running towards him, his eyes lit up and he smiled.

"Takeru!" Yamato shouted out. Takeru got up and out of his seat to meet Yamato and the two joined in a hug. 'They're so cute,' she thought to herself.

After the two hugged for a good while, Yamato walked back over with his hand on Takeru's shoulder. The little boy was smiling as they walked towards them, but then she met Takeru's eyes and the little boy's smile was wiped off of his face.

A pang of guilt went through her as she remembered the way she treated the little boy the previous day. Apparently Takeru hadn't forgotten about it either, and it made her feel terrible. And she hated feeling terrible.

She got out of her seat and walked up to Takeru. The little blonde looked up to her still wearing a frown that should not be seen anywhere on the boy's face.

"Hi Mimi," Takeru said very quietly.

"Oh, I'm so sorry Takeru about yesterday. I was being a big stinky head and I shouldn't have let my friends make you leave. Can you forgive me?" she asked. Honestly she wouldn't be surprised if the boy didn't forgive her. If someone had kicked her away because someone else told them to then she wouldn't ever talk to that person ever again. The fact that Takeru had said 'Hi,' gave her some hope that maybe they could be friends.

"I forgive you Mimi!" the boy said happily as he gave her a big smile and then hugged her. She was taken aback by the blonde's actions. How someone could so easily forgive another even though the other person was being a 'stinky head,' touched her. Granted Takeru was only a second grader, but second graders were people too!

She hugged Takeru back. "I'm so happy you forgave me," she told Takeru. She faintly noticed Yamato, Joe, and Koushiro giving her questioning looks because they had no idea what was going on. She ignored them though.

"Of course I did! We are friends after all!" the little boy said, pulling back from the hug.

Friends? Goodness, she really was getting popular! What, with Kumiko, Harumi, the other girls, Joe, Koushiro, Yamato, and now Takeru she was at eight friends!

She sat back down as well as Yamato with Takeru sitting next to him. Yamato introduced his little brother to Koushiro and Joe. They continued eating like they were, except for Yamato and Takeru. Takeru didn't have any food with him, and Yamato was talking to Takeru. She decided her food wasn't too important at the moment and listened in on the brother's conversation.

"… is all this on your clothes, Takeru?" Yamato asked.

For a split second she saw Takeru's smile fade and the boy looked really sad, but then the smile was back and he said happily, "We made tee-shirts today!" She wondered what was up with Takeru's instant reaction to Yamato's question, but she ignored it.

"So I take it you made a mess, then?" Yamato accused.

Takeru nodded. "Yeah," he said, "One of the dye containers opened and this happened. I'm only sad my shirt didn't turn out."

At this point she returned back to her food and talked with Joe and Koushiro. Yamato and Takeru, although sitting next to them, seemed to be by themselves. She wondered why the two were so happy to be together. The few brothers and sisters she saw in different families seemed to hate each other. They always fought and never got along. Not Takeru and Yamato, however; the two of them seemed to be best of friends.

"Hey Joe!" Takeru suddenly blurt out, interrupting their conversation, "What is that on your arm?"

The question seemed to catch everyone off guard, but Joe was by far the most confused.

"What do you mean… oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!" Joe suddenly started freaking out.

She then looked at Joe's arm and saw why he was freaking out. Going down Joe's arm starting from the elbow and ending at his wrist was a bright-red rash. A couple of the lines were darker; probably where Joe had been itching his arm- which she had noticed him doing a lot of recently.

"What is this?!" Joe continued, "I'm dying! Oh no, I can't die; I'm allergic to dying!"

"Joe just chill!" Yamato tried, but Joe kept going on and on.

She tried to calm the Joe down too saying, "Joe it's not that bad,"- though that was a lie; it was terrible- "Besides, you can't die from a rash… I think."

That only seemed to make Joe freak out even worse, though. She didn't know why that was, but it had made Yamato and Koushiro glare at her.

Koushiro then tried, "Joe, if you let me see it then I can most likely tell you the cause of this phenomenon."

Joe stopped flailing about- finally- and reached his arm towards Koushiro who then started inspecting it. She also looked at the rash a little closer. His arm was covered with little red spots, and some of them were larger than others. Some of the spots were a darker red while others were very bright, almost appearing pink. She loved pink, but this was just disgusting.

"It looks like it's just a poison ivy reaction. Are you allergic to poison ivy?" Koushiro asked.

Joe nodded, "Probably, I'm allergic to everything according to my father."

"Then let's go to the first aid cabin and get it treated. It doesn't look very bad and it seems like it'll go off on its own, but they may be able to accelerate the recovery process," Koushiro said as he got up out of his seat. Joe did as well and the two of them walked out of the dining hall. She thought of following them, but that rash was just too disgusting. Besides, it might be contagious, and she didn't want to get _that _all over her.

They debated whether they should follow Koushiro and Joe, but they decided there was nothing they really could do and that the two of them would be fine. Afterwards there was silence, which she took advantage of to ask something that has been on her mind ever since Joe and Koushiro explained why Yamato had run away.

"Yamato," she started, "how come Taichi doesn't like you?"

She saw the blonde wince when she had said Taichi. So there really was something going on between these two. She originally thought that maybe this Taichi kid was just a bully, but it seemed like there was more to it than that.

Yamato stayed silent for a while before sighing. "I…" he tried, but then stopped. She started to wonder if Yamato was going to speak again when he said silently, "It all happened about three years ago…"

* * *

_"Yamato! Yamato! Let's go to the park! Can we? Can we? Can we?"_

_Takeru, his little baby brother, was jumping up and down looking up at him with a hopeful expression. He had to admit the idea did sound like a good one. These days he just liked staying inside his house. He used to love going to the park with Takeru and his parents, but then his parents had gotten the divorce. He only saw Takeru about once or twice a month and his parents were always busy- his mother was most likely working on a paper and his father was always away at the television station. He knew some people at his school that went to the park as friends, but he didn't have any friends. He was a quiet person who didn't talk or smile much, and because of this kids in school would try their best to avoid him. So he didn't have friends, he didn't have his parents, and most of the time he didn't have a little brother to go to the park with either. But this time was different._

_"Sure Takeru," he said as he jumped up from his seat on the couch, "Let's go!"_

_Takeru cheered and he smiled a little bit. Before he knew it they already had their shoes on and were walking out of the apartment complex. Takeru had come to stay with him at their dad's place, so their father wasn't home- of course. When Takeru wasn't around, his father would come home late at night most of the time, but since Takeru was around then maybe he'd try to get off early. _

_He often wondered if he had made the right choice in picking his father over his mother. He loved his father- don't get him wrong- but his choice had made him basically learn to live on his own. At least his mother could work at home some days and didn't work such late nights. But he knew his father would have been really sad if neither of his sons had chosen to live with him. _

_"Yamato, let's go swinging!" Takeru said pointing towards the park's swing-set. The park was pretty much empty. A couple of kids his age were playing soccer, there were a few younger kids on the playground, but other than that, that was it. He saw Takeru running off towards the swing-set a ways ahead of him, so he started after the little blonde. _

_"Takeru wait up!" he called out. Takeru turned to look back at him and stuck his tongue out. His little brother didn't see the ledge surrounding the swing-set area, though, and the little boy tripped over the black strip of plastic. _

_"Takeru!" he said as he quickened his pace. Takeru was lying face-down on the ground, and when he finally got to his knees next to his brother he could hear Takeru crying. _

_"Are you ok?" he asked concerned as he picked up his little brother and sat him down on his lap. His brother had a scraped up knee and blood was oozing out of the wound. It was just a little scrape, though, so he knew Takeru would be ok. _

_He started comforting his brother and Takeru slowly stopped crying. He smiled and looked around the rest of the park trying to find which way to go to get back to his father's apartment to clean up Takeru's wound, but his eyes froze on two people. Standing off a little ways away from the swing-set was a boy with wild brown hair that stuck up in every direction with a little brown-haired girl standing next to him. The two of them were both laughing hysterically and the boy who looked his age was pointing towards him and Takeru. Was he just imagining it, or were those two people laughing at him and Takeru? No, they really were. He quickly got up to his feet and ran over to the boy with Takeru following behind._

_"Hey, don't laugh at me and my brother!" he shouted at the boy who was wearing goggles._

_The goggle-head looked at him confused mumbling, "What?"_

_"Do you want to fight?" he threatened. He wasn't one to stand by idly while someone was laughing at his little brother._

_"Whoa, we weren't you or your brother, blondie," the boy said._

_He didn't listen, though, and said, "Don't laugh at my brother ever again! You're a meanie and I hate you!" He walked up to the boy and pushed him down to the ground. _

_"Come on Takeru," he mumbled as he turned on his heels and grabbed his little brother's hand and dragged him through the park. He didn't turn back around to see the boy's initial reaction of shock and sadness, but he did hear the boy's angry shout, "I hate you too!"_

* * *

"Ever since then, Taichi and I have despised each other," he said, finishing his story.

"That little incident caused you two to start hating each other?" Mimi asked him.

"Yes," he answered, "I'm not going to let anyone make fun of Takeru. I'm his big brother and I'm always going to look out for him. Right Takeru?"

He looked over at his little brother who was looking down at the table. "Right," he heard his brother mumble. He wondered for a second what was wrong with his brother, but then turned his attention back to Mimi who was starting a rant.

"Well I think Taichi is a big bully! I can't believe someone would do such a mean thing, and I also can't believe how someone would be friends with that guy!" she said, glaring over at Taichi and Sora who were sitting together a couple of tables away, "I wish there was some way we could get back at them!"

He watched her and could practically see the wheels turning in her head before- lightbulb- she put out her finger and smiled. "How about we bully those two?"

"What?" he asked flabbergasted.

"No, it will work!" she said as if it was the best plan ever, "I mean they are clearly trying to bully you. It's only fair if we bully them as well. Besides, we have more people if we include Koushiro and Joe and your little brother! And it will be fun! Come on Yamato! Let's do it!"

She stuck out her lips making a pouting face and put her hands together as if praying he would accept. He hated to say it, but it did sound like it'd be fun. He didn't want to be a bully though. But if Taichi and Sora were both being bullies to him, then why couldn't he be one to them too?

"I'm not doing it. I don't like bullies," Takeru said, still looking down at the table.

He was about to tell Mimi "no" as well, but then one of the counselors spoke over the megaphone.

"The rest of the evening is free! You can do whatever you want!"

The dining hall was filled with a roar of 'woops' and hollers from all of the other campers and they were running out of the dining hall as fast as they could.

"We can go swimming now!" Mimi said happily, "Let's go."

He reluctantly let Mimi take her hand and run out of the dining hall. Takeru got up from his seat and followed them. He looked back at his brother who still looked abnormally sad, and then he noticed the bandage on Takeru's knee.

"Takeru what happened!?" he asked as he freed his hand from Mimi's grasp and put his hands on his brother's shoulders.

Takeru slowly looked up at him and said, "I fell during basketball. Someone…"

But he couldn't hear his brother when Mimi called out, "Koushiro! Joe!"

The two of them were walking towards the dining hall. He turned around and saw Mimi hugging Koushiro and patting Joe on the shoulder so as to stay away from the blue-head's rash. He got up and walked over to the two of them holding onto Takeru's hand.

"How is it?" he asked Joe he was a lot calmer than what he had been about half an hour ago.

He held up his arm with a smile. The rash was a lot better. "The people there said it wasn't too severe and they gave me some kind of cream to make it go away."

"Told you it was nothing to worry about," Koushiro said.

He was about to return his attention back to his brother when Mimi called out, "So do you guys want to go swimming with us?"

"Uh… sure!" Joe said.

"That sounds prodigious," Koushiro agreed.

"Mimi what do you think you're doing?" a girl's voice asked from behind them. They all turned around and saw a group of four girls walking up to them. The two in front had their hands on their hips and were looking at the rest of them as if they were trash.

"I was going to go…" Mimi started, but one of the girls filled in the rest of her sentence for her.

"… get away from these freaks and come with us, your real friends, right?" the girl with blonde hair tied back into a ponytail finished.

He looked at Mimi who looked like she was having an intense inward battle. She looked nervously from the blonde girl, to Koushiro, back to the girls, then to Joe and to him.

"Well," the blonde haired girl asked, tapping her foot impatiently.

Mimi sighed, "You're right," she conceded.

Honestly, he wasn't too surprised. He had heard what Mimi had done to Joe and he didn't think much of her. He was starting to think she had turned around and was going to be their friend, but that wasn't true. Joe and Koushiro both looked like they had been slapped across the face.

"Good girl," the other lead girl said and Mimi walked up to join them as the girls started walking off into a different direction. Mimi looked back at them guiltily, but he ignored her.

"Are we still going swimming?" Takeru asked.

He hesitated at first, but then nodded.

"Yeah, let's go have some fun."

* * *

She slowly opened up the door to her cabin and peeked inside to see if there was anybody inside. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the cabin was empty. She rushed into the cabin and shut the door behind her. She really did not like those girls she had to room with, especially Kumiko and Harumi.

It was funny, honestly. The three of them had been best of friends at one point in their lives. Both Kumiko and Harumi had been on her soccer team- which was a real surprise to those who only knew the two prissy girls for a short time. They were always on the same team since before kindergarten. One year- third grade year maybe- Kumiko and Harumi were put on a different team from her. Their two teams had faced each other, and the day before it rained causing the field to be a muddy mess. It also was a soccer game during school where all the kids in their grade went outside to watch them. Well, Sora wasn't one who enjoyed losing, so she played competitively, pretending she didn't know Kumiko or Harumi. When she was going for the ball she may or may not have shoved- accidentally of course- the two of them down to the ground. She didn't know it at the time, but they landed in a big mud pile and all of the other kids were laughing at them. Even up to this moment the two girls hated her guts and tried to make fun of her so as to get back at her.

She didn't care, though. She still played soccer, if her mother would let her keep playing, and she still had friends on the soccer team. And even now she made a new friend, Taichi.

Taichi was a touchy subject. He was actually a really cool guy. Despite his crazy appearance- the hair looked ridiculous and who wore goggles around except by the swimming pool- he was a really nice guy. He was really funny and always put a smile on her face, except when he was all anti-Yamato.

That was really starting to bug her. She didn't know Yamato very well so she could only judge her based on what Taichi told her about him which wasn't anything good. And the story Taichi had said about Yamato being a jerk. She was sure Taichi wouldn't make something like that up, but she also knew there had to be another side to the story that Taichi was not looking at or maybe even know about. At first she was able to handle Taichi's obvious hatred to Yamato, but when he had pushed Yamato into the river and made him run off… that was too much. She was going to have to talk to him about that.

As she went to change into her bathing suit- she was going to meet Taichi at the swimming pool- the door to the cabin opened up. She quickly turned around and saw her cabin-mates walking in. She started blushing because of her lack of clothes.

Kumiko and Harumi started whistling at her. "Wow girls, look at that hot stuff!" Harumi said.

"NOT!" they shouted together and all of the girls started laughing at her. She hurriedly threw on her bikini and grabbed her towel and made her way to the door. As she walked past Kumiko and Harumi, one of the other girls put her hands on her shoulders. She looked up and saw Mimi looking at her seriously.

"Listen Sora," Mimi said, "Don't you and Taichi keep picking on Yamato like you have been! It's not funny and it's really rude!"

She pushed her way past Mimi and walked out of the cabin. She couldn't help feeling guilty as she kept walking, though. She knew Taichi was being a jerk, but he also was having a hard time. She learned that he didn't have any friends except for his little sister who was sick at home. She figured all this 'bullying' would stop once she became his friend, but she was wrong about that. Maybe she should talk to Taichi about this…

It didn't take very long before she was walking into the swimming pool area with her towel around her shoulders. She looked around and saw that not many people had decided to go swimming. It was a cold night and the sun was starting to set, so people must not have wanted to go swimming. She quickly spotted Taichi who was setting his towel on one of the tables next to the pool.

"Hey Sora," Taichi said as she walked up to him.

"Hi Taichi. Doesn't look like there's many people around here, doesn't it," she said.

"No, not at all," he responded, "But that just makes things more fun. Besides, Yamato's not here so… oh no."

She turned to look in the direction Taichi was looking horrified at and saw Yamato walking through the gate to the pool area with another little blonde boy that had to be Yamato's brother, a short red-haired kid who was fully clothed and carrying a laptop, and a blue-haired kid wearing glasses. They must not have spotted them yet because they all seemed happy. Taichi though looked like he was about to explode.

"Out of all the people who could've been here…" he started, but she cut him off.

"Taichi, listen," she said, trying to reason with him, "We don't need to worry about them. Let's just act like they're not here, ok?"

He mumbled something, but she took it as him agreeing with her. She set her towel down next to Taichi's and she noticed him looking at her with wide eyes. For a split second she thought she had forgotten to put the top half- or even worse, the bottom half- on while she was trying to avoid her roommates, but she could feel the straps touching her skin so she relaxed. Taichi's look still made her uneasy, though.

"Do I have something on me, Taichi?" she asked.

Suddenly the goggle-less goggle-head shook his head and said, "It's nothing." She couldn't miss the boy's glowing face as it turned a bright red from embarrassment. She wondered what that meant, but then dismissed it. She was about to jump in, but then she decided she wasn't going to wait any longer to talk about the subject.

"Taichi," she started. He turned to her, and she continued, "Why do you hate Yamato so much. Really?"

At her saying 'Yamato,' the embarrassment was wiped from his face and replaced with anger. "I already told you," he said, "He tried to pick a fight with me for no reason!"

She sighed, "I know, but is that really all there is to it? Is there something more to it that you're not…"

"Sora," he cut her off, "I thought you were my friend?"

"I am Taichi…" she tried, but he continued on.

"Then just trust me ok? I'm telling you the guy's a jerk and he deserves anything bad that happens to him," he finished.

She wanted to say something more, but Taichi was already running towards the pool. He jumped in and used his arms to pull his knees to his chest.

"Canonball!" he shouted out. There was a big splash and jumped out of the way of the water flying towards her.

As he reached the surface he called out to her, "Come on Sora, the water's great!"

She hesitated for a second and turned to where Yamato and his friends were and saw that they were having a good time in the pool acting as if the two of them weren't even there. She turned back to Taichi before walking to the edge of the pool. She sat down and put her legs in the water. Using her arms she then lowered herself into the pool.

"Watch this!" Taichi told her as he started doing front-flips in the water. She looked back over at Yamato who was looking right at her. She locked eyes with him for a couple of seconds which he smiled at her before turning back to Taichi who was still flipping in the water. Was Yamato really that bad of a person?


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own digimon!

Chapter 6! Shorter chapter compared to some of the other ones, but this chapter was kind of fun to write... especially the fight at the end of the chapter! Umm... basically that's it, thanks for the review for the last chapter LILFOC! Also, this story hasn't really been getting a ton of reviews, so I urge you, if you're reading this story then please take the time to leave a review, even a couple words(or even one word) helps; reviews motivate us writers and we can't really get better without hearing back from those reading. So, that's my little spiel, enjoy the chapter and please review, favorite, follow, etc!

* * *

Chapter 6:

She felt absolutely terrible. Her stomach hurt and she felt as if she were about to vomit at any second. She was sweating a lot, but she still had her fuzzy pajamas on because she felt cold. The whole night she had tried to fall asleep, but she couldn't because she kept coughing the entire night. She was about to get up out of her bed and tell her mother how bad she felt, but as she opened her bedroom door she realized Taichi was not at the kitchen table. Then she realized her brother was at camp and she was trying to act like she was better so she could go too. A cough threatened to escape her and she had to try really hard not to let it escape her. She quickly wiped off the sweat on her forehead with the sleeve of her pajamas and took a deep breath as she entered the kitchen; this was not going to be easy to pull off.

"Good morning dear!" her mother said as she shut her bedroom door behind her and walked into the kitchen, "How are you feeling?"

Her father- who was sitting at the kitchen table reading the newspaper like he always did in the morning before he left for work- stopped his reading and looked up at her as well.

It was hard to do, but she smiled brightly and said as happily and not-sickly as possible, "I feel great."

That was such a lie. She didn't like lying to her parents; she always tried to avoid doing so whenever she could. But this was different. If she was going to have any chance at going to camp then she had to lie because her parents weren't sending a sick kid to camp- especially her after being sent to the hospital and all.

"Do you still want to go to camp?" her father asked her, causing her to smile a real smile.

She nodded and her father continued, "Well then let's call that camp!"

It was working? She honestly couldn't believe it. She must have been pretty good at feigning her health because neither parent looked suspicious at all. Maybe this was actually all going to work out!

"Hello?" her father asked as she took a seat at the kitchen table and her mother set a plate of… were those eggs? She knew if she was going to play this healthy card and get to camp she was going to have to eat. She inwardly sighed and put off eating to listen to her father talk on the telephone.

"No, no I'm not calling to check up on Taichi. I have another child, a daughter, who wasn't able to go to your camp the first couple of days because she was sick. She is better now and wants to go to camp; is there any way she can do so?"

She tried to listen to what the person on the other end of the line was saying, but she never was very good at that no matter how hard she tried. Instead she just waited for her father to respond.

"Anytime is good," he said, and then stopped to listen before going on, "This afternoon? Seven 'o'clock? We can make that happen. Thank you very much… bye."

She looked at her father expectantly as he hung up the phone and turned to her. He gave her a thumbs-up and she breathed a sigh of relief. She was happy enough to jump around their whole apartment, but she was still sick- unknowingly to her parents.

"Well?" her mother asked her father as she started washing the various pots and pans she had used to cook the 'eggs.'

"They said she can't come until seven 'o'clock this afternoon because they already have started today's activities, but you will be able to do everything else Hikari!" her father told them.

She smiled at her father before turning to her eggs and picking up her fork. She stabbed the somewhat yellow, almost brown, eggs and hesitantly put a bite in her mouth. They actually tasted better than what she thought they would- which wasn't saying much- but she could already tell her stomach was disagreeing with her.

"Hikari?" her mother asked with a concerned tone. She started worrying that her mother had seen through her act and could tell she was actually sick, not healthy like her parents believed, but her mother wasn't even looking at her when she looked up.

"What is it mommy?" she asked innocently.

Her mother turned to look at her with a towel in one hand and a wet plate in another and said, "If you feel sick at any time before seven 'o'clock and even if you feel sick at camp then you have to let us know. Please promise me you will tell us and please don't lie about your health. Can you do that for me?"

'Oh no,' she thought to herself. She already was lying about her health and now her mother was asking her to promise not to lie. She always tried to tell her parents the truth no matter what. The only time she could remember lying to her parents- besides lying about her health right now, of course- was a year or two ago. It was because of Taichi.

* * *

_She was sitting down on the couch watching the television. One of her favorite Japanese cartoons was on, but despite her focused watching she could still hear her brother talking to her from the kitchen._

_"Hikari, come on! I want to go to the park!" her brother pleaded._

_She shook her head, "Taichi, mom told us not to go to the park today. She said she was going to be back in a little bit so what happens when she comes home and we're not here?"_

_He heard Taichi pout, but she knew that she wasn't going to disobey her mother no matter how much Taichi begged. And if she didn't leave the apartment, she knew Taichi wouldn't leave her behind; no matter how annoying Taichi could be, he always loved her and looked out after her. Well, it was a mixture of that and the fear of their mother's wrath if their mother found out Taichi had left her behind._

_"But…" Taichi tried to convince her. No doubt he was making the 'puppy dog' face that she couldn't deny, but she had already learned how to avoid that trick; just don't look at him._

_"Fine," he heard Taichi mumble. She smiled in relief. She felt bad for having to disappoint Taichi, but she knew that it wasn't worth disobeying their mother. _

_She listened back in to her cartoon, but then turned around when she heard what sounded like a bouncing ball coming from behind her. She then saw her brother kicking a soccer ball in the air. _

_"Taichi?! What are you doing?" she asked her brother._

_He snatched the ball into his arms while it was in the air and smiled brightly. He said, "Well, since I'm not allowed to go to the park and play soccer I'm just going to play soccer in here!"_

_"You can't play soccer in here Taichi!" she protested, "You could break something."_

_"Don't be silly Hikari," he said, "I'm so good that nothing will happen."_

_He started kicking the ball in the air in front of him again and she watched, just waiting for the inevitable to happen. And before she knew it, it was happening. The ball hit off of Taichi's toes and went flying straight at her. She threw her hands in front of her head to protect herself and the ball bounced off her arms. She put her arms back down to her side and watched as the ball flew right for a glass lamp that was sitting on a table right next to the chair she was sitting in. She watched in horror as the ball hit the lamp and lamp tilted over on its side and started falling to the ground. She faintly heard the sound of the apartment door opening and her mother's voice rang out, "I'm home kids!"_

_Just then the lamp hit the floor causing it so shatter into a bunch of tiny pieces. The sound made her wince and she slowly looked over to her brother and mother._

_"Wh… wha… what is going on here?!" her mother demanded, her voice growing angrier as she went on. _

_Without even thinking about it she spoke up, "I'm so sorry mommy! I was playing soccer inside and I had an accident."_

_Taichi looked at her with a face of shock, but she ignored him as his mother asked, "You… you did this Hikari?" Clearly her mother didn't believe she had done this. Maybe it was because she was usually very sweet and did nothing wrong; or maybe it was because her mother didn't know she played soccer; Or maybe even her mother thought she couldn't be so dumb as to play soccer inside. Either way, her mother's confused look soon turned into one of disappointment._

_"Hikari, I thought you would know better…" her mother shook her head._

_"I'm very sorry mommy," she said._

_"I know you are," and for a second she thought maybe she was going to be able to get off unpunished, but she couldn't be that lucky, "But I'm still going to have to punish you…"_

* * *

The punishment wasn't anything too severe because the next day she had got sick- she always seemed to be sick a lot. Taichi had yelled at her for taking the blame, but she knew deep down he was happy about it. Their mother wouldn't have been so easy on the punishment if she had found out the truth. She was protecting Taichi, and he was happy he didn't have to be punished so it made her happy as well.

Now, though, she wasn't lying to protect anybody. In fact, by lying she was causing harm to herself. She'd be able to go to camp, though, and be with Taichi, and hadn't Taichi said he'd miss her while he was gone. She would be helping Taichi, then, if she lied… Yeah! She'd be helping Taichi.

"I promise mommy," she said with a smile, although smiling was the last thing she felt like doing as her stomach threatened to unleash the little bit of food she had already eaten.

Her mother smiled and nodded before turning back to wash more dishes. Her father had buried himself in his newspaper, and their pet cat, Miko, was lying across the kitchen floor taking a nap. She didn't like doing this to her parents, but the good news was that she was going to be at camp by the end of the day. She was doing the right thing… right?

* * *

So, today was really lame! They had woken up and went to the dining hall to eat breakfast. Afterwards they were going to go outside and learn how to build a fire, pitch a tent, and all that "camping-esque" stuff, but the weather was not willing to cooperate. As soon as they all had walked outside of the dining hall, it had started raining… of course. It didn't just lightly rain either, it poured and it did not stop. Because of the annoying weather, they were forced to stay inside their cabins due to all morning events being cancelled and rescheduled for tomorrow.

And then being stuck in a cabin with the kid you hate the most was not enjoyable. He had stayed in his bed staring up at the ceiling while Koushiro, Joe, and blondie played a couple of card games. Eventually Koushiro had offered for him to join them with their game, and he quickly moved over to join them before Yamato could object. Once he joined them, though, Yamato got up and went to his bed and stuffed his ear buds in, shutting out all of them.

After what seemed like forever, the lunch bell finally had rung and the rain had ceased. He ate lunch with Sora, which was probably the high point of the entire day, and afterwards they went outside to the volleyball courts to split into groups to play a couple of games.

Which led him to where he was right now. They had already split into groups and separated onto the different volleyball courts. At least the sun was out and it felt amazing; not too hot but not too cold either. And he was standing next to Sora; he was going to have to make sure they were on the same team. The only bad thing was that Yamato was in his group- of course- along with Koushiro, Joe, the girl with the crazy pink cowboy hat, and a couple of other kids from his grade. The group totaled… twelve? So that would mean two teams of six. As long as he and Yamato weren't on the same team then he'd be happy.

"Taichi! Yamato! You two can be captains!" one of the counselors ordered. He felt Sora push his back causing him to stumble forward. He glared over at Yamato who was glaring right back as the two of them walked to where the counselor was standing.

"Ok," the counselor continued, "Pick two even teams of six and then start playing. We already discussed the rules: game to twenty-one points, rally-scoring, all that jazz. Now go!"

He watched as the counselor walked away before turning back to the group of kids and studying them all over, trying to figure out who would help most on the team; he was not going to lose this game. Once he found his first pick he said, "Alright, I'll go first!" He looked over at Yamato who looked like he was about to object before continuing, "Sora!"

Sora smiled and hurried over to stand next to him. Yamato shook his head, giving up trying to argue- he better not try to argue with him unless he wanted to get beat up- and said, "Joe! Come on man!"

They kept listing off names until each of their teams had six people on it. He looked his team over and smiled. He had Sora, Koushiro- who didn't look like he'd be any good but he didn't want Yamato to have all of their cabin mates on the same team- , Kazuo- who was on the soccer team and was very athletic-, Takumi- who was very tall… very tall-, and last but certainly least a girl who looked like she never did anything besides dress up in fancy clothes and gossip about other people, Kumiko- she already was complaining about having to play volleyball and was saying something like "I thought that dumb hike was bad, but now this? What if I break a nail?!" 'Seriously?' he thought to himself. He wished he didn't have to pick her, but it was either her or this other girl names Harumi. This one was easier to look at so he decided he'd pick her.

"Are you ready to be humiliated Taichi?" he turned to see Yamato walking up to him, staring him down.

"By you and your 'all-star' team? Ha! I don't think so blondie!" he retorted. Yamato didn't honestly think he was going to win, did he? First off, Yamato seemed too obsessed with gel-ing his hair up- which he spent over half an hour and probably a full bottle of hair gel to get it the way he wanted it in the morning- to be any good at anything sporty. Then he had Joe who looked like he hadn't run a day in his life, the cowboy-hatted girl who he found out was named Mimi who was in the same boat as Joe, that Harumi girl who was in the same situation- that had to be one big boat… more of a cruise ship maybe. The only ones that looked like they'd be somewhat decent were Satoru and Katsuro who he recognized both from being on the soccer team; he'd have to watch out for them.

To his surprise, Yamato didn't seem fazed at all. Instead he simply smirked at him and said, "We'll see Taichi."

Ok, this dude had a problem! His team was terrible; there was no way Yamato could think for even a second they were going to win. Oh well, if he wanted to be arrogant and then lose without even scoring a point then that was his problem!

"Let's play!" he yelled!

The two teams took their places. Since he had got picked first he had allowed Yamato's team to get first serve; they needed all the help they could get. Once his team was in place he nodded at Yamato who nodded back. And then the game began.

Yamato's team wasn't as bad as he originally thought. Yamato was surprisingly really good and had made some- he hated to admit it but they really were- amazing diving saves. The two soccer players on Yamato's team, Satoru and Katsuro, were both really good too. His team had some decent players- him of course along with Sora and Kazuo and Takumi- but the ball seemed to always miss them and go to the bad players- Koushiro and Kumiko whom literally moved away from the ball when it was hit to them. His team had more good players than Yamato's, but their bad luck had made the game pretty much even.

It was now getting down to the wire. They were playing to twenty-one points, but you had to win by two points; his team had twenty while Yamato's had twenty-one. By this team they all were exhausted. It was hot and humid out and they were playing at an intense level. They hadn't even had a break to go get some water; he and Yamato wouldn't allow it because each wanted to win the game badly. Yamato's team had just scored, so it was their serve. He was in the back of the court along with Sora and Kumiko leaving Koushiro, Takumi, and Kazuo in the front. Mimi was serving for the other team- which was good for them, she hadn't been able to hit the ball over the net yet- and with her in the back were Joe and Satoru meaning Yamato, Katsuro, and Harumi were closest to the net. This was it; they either stopped the other team from scoring and kept the game going or the game was over and they were the losers. The pressure was on, but he performed well under pressure.

Mimi threw the ball up and drew her palm backwards. She thrust her arm forward and her hand hit the ball causing it to go flying through the air. He didn't know how but she had actually done it; she had served the ball over the net!

Once it had crossed to his team's side of the net, the ball dropped towards Koushiro. 'No,' he thought to himself, 'this was not how his team was going to lose!' Luckily Takumi was thinking the same thing and ran over to where Koushiro was on the court and hit the ball back to the other side. He watched as the ball flew towards Yamato who hit it right to where Takumi had been standing before he saved Koushiro. Knowing Takumi wasn't going to make it back in time; he dove to the open spot and hit the ball up in the air. He looked to his right to see Sora running up and hitting the ball with the palm of her hand, sending it to the other side. The ball whizzed through the air directed straight at Joe. Joe, seeing the speeding ball flying right for him, ducked out of the ball. The ball hit the ground before bouncing away from the court.

He got up to his feet and high-fived Sora.

"Nice save Taichi!" she said, high-fiving him back.

"THAT'S GAME!" he heard someone from the other side of the court yell out before hearing 'whoops' and 'hollers' and maybe even a 'finally' from the other side. His smile fell from his face as he looked to see what was up.

Yamato walked up to the net grinning like he had just won the World Cup, "Heck of a game Taichi, but it looks like you weren't good enough!"

Ok, he was confused. He had just made a spectacular diving save to which Sora returned to the other side giving his team the point; the score was twenty-one to twenty-one.

"What are you talking about Yamato?" he asked as he became annoyed.

"It's too bad Sora didn't hit the ball in-bounds," Yamato said, shaking his head, "Cause that was a great save."

"You think that was out of bounds?! I saw it with my own two eyes, it was in!" he yelled.

Sora spoke up, "Taichi…" but he ignored her.

"The ball went flying over Joe's head! It didn't land anywhere near in-bounds!" Yamato fired back.

He growled in frustration, "I told you, I watched it land in-bounds!"

"And I'm telling you that you're a liar!" Yamato shouted out.

"Why I outta…" and then he lost track of what he was doing. He remembered running towards Yamato and tackling his legs out from underneath him, avoiding the net that was in-between them. They rolled on the ground for a bit and started throwing punches and kicks. He could faintly hear Sora yelling over the other campers cheering out, "Fight! Fight!" but then he heard Mimi's voice and then he heard the distinct sound of someone being slapped. He felt someone grab him and try to throw him off of Yamato, but whoever it was didn't have the strength to move him and only was a nuisance if anything. He wasn't sure for how long the fight had gone on for before he heard a loud whistle sound over all of what was going on. The campers stopped chanting, but he continued to fight Yamato. Suddenly, though, someone with a lot more strength threw him across the court so he was off Yamato- luckily he had only landed on sand. He was about to get back up and charge after Yamato again, but someone held him back. Struggling to break free, he flailed about, but he couldn't loosen this guy's grip. Finally giving up, he took a deep breath to see all that was going on.

He was in the middle of a big circle of campers. He along with the counselor who was holding him back and Yamato- also being restrained- were in the middle of the circle. Sora and Mimi were standing next to each other with their backs turned towards each other; Sora had a red mark on her cheek- did Mimi slap Sora? Then Koushiro and Joe were standing awkwardly away from the rest of them. There was another counselor in-between him and Yamato who had a whistle in her hand and was talking very quickly.

"…before have I seen such shenanigans in this camp before! Cabin arrest! I can't believe I have to go that extreme, but if I must I will not hesitate. All of you are sentenced to cabin arrest!" the counselor exclaimed before walking briskly away from all of them. The crowd of campers parted so the counselor could walk past them. He wondered for a second what cabin arrest was, but then as the counselors started dragging all of them off towards where all the cabins were he guessed what it was. But they weren't going to put him and Yamato in the same cabin were they?

Apparently he thought wrong because when he arrived at his cabin, he along with Yamato, Koushiro, and Joe were thrown into the cabin. He heard the counselor explain the rules of cabin arrest, but he didn't really listen; he was too busy glaring at Yamato who kept staring at the ground. After about five minutes or so, the counselors exited the cabin and shut the door behind them. He instantly made his way to his bed and lied down, not saying a word. Actually, no one said a word. Yamato- after he had got his headphones and music device- was sitting with his back against the wall on the opposite side of the cabin he was on. Koushiro and Joe were sitting on Koushiro's bed and were playing a game or something on his laptop, occasionally sending a glare in his or Yamato's direction. He felt bad that they had to be locked up in here too, but he hadn't asked either of them to get involved; it was their own choice. He worried about Sora too; he was aware of the fact that her and Mimi stayed in the same cabin and wondered if she was fine. He was sure she was, but he still felt bad.

As he lay there, he could feel just how much the fight had affected him. He was sore all over and could already see spots on his arms and legs that were more than likely going to bruise. He was exhausted not only from the fight but also from the intense game before- which he was still mad about. He didn't feel good at all.

After what seemed like forever, though it couldn't have been more than half an hour, Yamato stood up and walked to the cabin door and open it up.

"Yamato? We can't leave the cabin, remember?" he heard Joe tell Yamato, but whether it was because the blonde was ignoring Joe or just couldn't hear him- he still had his headphones in-, Yamato didn't show any sign of recognition. He watched as Yamato exited the cabin and closed the door behind him.

Who did this guy think he was? First he thought he was all cool by claiming his team had won the game because the ball was 'out of bounds' according to his blind eyes. Now he was sneaking out of the cabin even though they were on cabin arrest. Well this kid was not cool! He was going to sneak out too!

"Taichi, not you too," he heard Koushiro mumble, but they didn't say anything else as he walked to the door, opened it up, exited the cabin, and then closed the door behind him.

It was so nice outside, maybe a little hot for his liking, but he could make do with it. What was he going to do now, though? He couldn't exactly go somewhere where all the counselors were because then they'd see he was out of the cabin and he'd be in even more trouble than he already was. He needed to go somewhere quiet, somewhere he could be alone.

And before long his tired legs were taking him to the place he had first been when he arrived at camp. It didn't take him long before he was climbing up the tree and getting comfortable on the same branch he had before, closing his eyes and falling asleep.


End file.
